


Ash's Unleashing

by Lightningblade49



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Eventual Romance, F/M, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-12 01:25:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4459907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightningblade49/pseuds/Lightningblade49
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Ash's battle with Paul a different confrontation between the 2, lead to some truth's being unveiled to ash. This is the result of those truths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ash’s Unleashing

Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokémon or any of its character’s (if I did I wouldn’t weaken Pikachu or any of ash’s Pokémon at the start of every region, seriously Pikachu losing to a beginner snivy WHAT THE HELL!)

My first fic so try not be mean! :(

AN: This is set during the sinnoh league after ash’s battle with Paul  
I’ve tried to fix the grammar in this chapter so hopefully it’s easier to read.

Chapter 1 

(Lily of the Valley Island Pokémon centre 6pm) 

Ash was thrilled he didn’t think this day could get any better .He was excited that he finally beat his rival Paul in a full battle and on the big stage as well, he’d never been in such a tough full battle in a long time. He’d felt like he’d been pushed to another level, he was as exhausted as his  
Pokémon who gave there all for ash to win. 

Currently Ash sat with Brock, Barry & Dawn in the Pokémon centre waiting for Pikachu and the others to heal.

“Man I’m spent “said the weary Ash.

“Hehe you ought to be Ash” chuckled Brock “That was a tough battle.”

“I can’t believe you beat Paul, I was certain Electivire was going to win.” exclaimed the still shocked Barry.

“Of course Ash was going to win he been training like crazy for this.” Dawn replied for Ash.

“I know but man your Infernape was something!” shouted Barry “When it activiated Blaze it was so cool like a tower of flames bursting into the Sky, and you Ash were acting all cool calling for flare blitz and Paul countering with thunder punch it WAS SO!” Barry was jerked out of his excited spiel by a palm to the back of the head from Brock.

“OW!” Whined Barry, who rubbed the back of his head a small lump forming.

“Alright calm down it was a good battle no need to scream it to the world.” Brock replied calmly as if he didn’t hit Barry in the head.

“You didn’t have to hit me.” Barry replied quietly for once as Dawn giggled in the background.

“I know I’m proud of all my Pokémon they all did there the best that’s all I can ask of them.” Ash said proudly with a smile on his face.  
Brock smiled “you know I think Paul might have taken some of what you said to heart Ash.”

“What do you mean” said a confused Ash & Barry in unison.

“You know Paul would normally criticize his Pokémon openly if they lost a battle but im certain he didn’t utter a word of contempt to any of his Pokémon during the battle.” 

“Considering how Paul lost both Aggron & Gastrodon at the start without taking out any of your Pokémon ash also I thought I saw Paul complement Electivire at the end of the battle.” continued Brock.

“I thought so to” agreed Dawn while holding Piplup in her lap .

“piplup!” Piplup agreed.

Barry still looked puzzled and Ash was still not certain “But Paul said that his plan was to use those two Pokemon to figure out my team for the rest of the match.” Ash said in response.

“That probably was the case” agreed Brock. “But the old Paul would never except defeats like that and not be annoyed in the least.”

“Plus he didn’t seem angry at all with Electivire.” Added Dawn with Piplup nodding it’s head.

“I don’t know.” said an uncertain Ash who was reflecting on the battle. Brock stood up and placed a hand on Ash’s shoulder making him look up. 

“Ash!” Started Brock as Dawn ,Piplup and Barry looked on. “You changed him, it may have not been an instant change but over the course of our journey through Sinnoh Paul has slowly come to except that his Pokémon aren’t tools for battle.” calmly said Brock

“When we first met him he didn’t respect you at all and didn’t respect his Pokémon either, remember when Electivire was an Elekid it tied with Pikachu which to be honest with you I was very surprised about. And he even released his Starly even though it beat your own” continued Brock.

“I know” replied a slightly down Ash, the victory didn’t feel as sweet anymore.

“You know Ash you remind him of Reggie.” 

“Really?” said Ash.

“Yeah, Ash you are both similar I agree” said Dawn. 

“Pip piplup.”

“What’s your point?” said Barry as he wondered who Reggie was.

“My point is before Paul would have probably released his Pokémon if they lost a battle, remember you beat his Weavile and he still has it. Also remember aggron lost as a lairon to Brandon yet paul still has it as well” continued Brock.

“Also I don’t recall Paul criticizing any of his Pokémon either during that battle with Brandon.”  
He did kind of lose it but at Brandon not his Pokemon towards the end” said Dawn who scratched her head.

“So your saying, he’s changed “said Ash quietly.

Brock Nodded “Yes, he might not be Mr nice guy, but he’s not as callous either.”

The next few minute was very quiet in Pokémon centre, other than Nurse Joy returning to the front desk currently bringing out a tray of poke balls, but only five of the 6 slots were occupied one was vacant. 

Ash was deep in thought, he wasn’t completely sure that Brock was right. Sure he noticed that Paul was a bit nicer to him especially when Monferno evolved, and didn’t call him a ‘weak trainer’ anymore. But, that didn’t mean that Paul respected him either, they didn’t get a chance to talk after the battle. Ash continued to think about it but was shocked out thought of his thought process literally by his best buddy Pikachu, who seemed to be staring at him in bemusement. 

The extra crispy Ash slowly got off ground and collapsed back into his seat and stared at Pikachu who slowly climbed up his left shoulder. The 2 stared at each other for a moment as dawn giggled in background with Piplup. Brock was missing and Barry had collapsed to the ground out of his seat in laughter. 

“HAHAHAHA!!”

“…………What was that for!” Ash finally roared out, almost displacing Pikachu from his shoulder. Pikachu regained his position and stared back at ash and zapped him again “PIKA! ”shouted Pikachu. 

“So.. orry Asssshhh!” giggled Dawn. “But you weren’t responding to us or Pikachu.”  
Barry got up chuckling “yeah but Pikachu sure took care of that!” he collapsed back into chair chuckling even more. 

“Yeah yeah very funny” Ash said sarcastically. “PIKAPIKAPIKA!!” Pikachu laughed.

“Where’s Brock?” said Ash who looked around.

"He went to pick up your Pokémon since Pikachu came charging this way and Nurse Joy called for you,we ought to fine you for making us wait.” Barry said jokingly.

“Yeah!” said Dawn with a small giggle. Ash rolled his eyes and got up and walked to the counter. “I’ll go see what taking Brock so long although I got a big hunch what Lover boy’s doing.” stated Ash as his mouth slowly curved into a smile. 

Walking away from the two Ash sighed as he approached the counter his mind still bewildered from the conversation moment’s ago. Ash quickly spotted brock who was as expected flirting this time while actually holding Nurse Joys hands, she stared confused at the drivel that spilt out of Brocks mouth as her Blissey stared on in wonderment, it’s mouth in a o shape.

Ash sighed again as he finished his approach catching the end of brock’s hogwash. “The star’s shine brightly tonight but none as brightly as you, so let me bask in your shining presence tonight just the 2 of us.” Brock looked passionately to the goddess in front of him, he would have continued but he felt a sharp a pain in the rear and was seeing even more star’s(Nurse Joy’s lol). “Let the seven of us shine brightly together!” Now Dizzy as he stumbled around. Ash was surprised he was still standing apparently so was Croagunk . “Gaahhh!!” and brock collapsed to the second poison jab and was dragged away. 

Both ash & Nurse Joy sweat dropped but quickly regained their composure.

“Nurse Joy I’m here pick up the rest of my Pokémon, and sorry Pikachu ran away from you.” he continued sheepishly.

“That’s ok Ash, here’s the rest of you Pokémon.” Nurse joy pushed the tray forward for Ash to collect. “Thanks!” and picked up his poke balls out of the tray. 

“If you need help please come again!” said Nurse Joy who smiled.

Ash & Pikachu nodded there thanks again and walked back to the group. Brock was still out of it surprisingly, with Croagunk waiting patiently at his side and dawn was shaking her head staring at Brock.

“He did it again didn’t he” said Dawn still shaking her head.

“Yep” Ash said blandly. “Where’s Barry?” Ash continued .

“Went to his room, said he’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Ok.” Ash then sighed once more and said “I’m going for walk ok with Pikachu, I won’t be long!” and slowly walked away. Dawn stared as they went.

‘What brock said must have really got to him, still he should be happy overall he did beat Paul.’ Shaking the thought’s out of her mind Dawn &

Piplup helped Croagunk drag Brock to their room.  
Outside the Pokémon centre 5:27pm

It was a wonderful night out thought Ash. A lovely breeze, a full moon with many star’s shining brightly. “Pika!” said Pikachu with its eye’s closed also enjoying the night breeze.

“You did great today Pikachu, you did you best like always.” Said Ash as they walked along the path watching the people out an about. 

“Pika Pikachu!” said Pikachu who licked Ash’s cheek.

“You all did well, hehe!” chuckled Ash “what a great day.” 

They walked quietly and eventually reached a path which lead to the Lily of the Valley Lake.

“Not a creative name is it Pikachu!” ash said chuckling , Pikachu was shaking it’s head.

When they reached the lake, ash saw a blur sitting on a bench by the lake. Ash walked closer and made out someone with purple hair.

“Paul!”


	2. Chapter 2

Hello again. The second instalment I hope you enjoy it.

I don't own Pokémon or any of its characters.

"Talking" 'thoughts'

Here's chapter 2, it will be longer.

"Paul!" said Ash startled.

The fuzz of purple turned its head from the bench it was sitting on and faced Ash.

"What are you doing here, Ash?" Paul said as he stood up from the bench and turned to completely face Ash.

It took a few second's for Ash to respond. "I felt like some fresh air so I went for a walk and now stumbled into you." A smile came onto Ash's face "what are you doing here."

"My Torterra likes to take walks during the evenings or nights, don't really know why though." replied Paul with a frown "Waiting for it to comeback, so I can go get some sleep."

"Pi!" Pikachu's ears shot up and he stared into the forest. "What's the matter Pikachu, you hear something." Ash asked till he heard the Slow plodding sounds of feet hitting ground, slowing getting closer and louder till the identity of the noise was revealed and Torterra plodded out of the forest and reached Pauls side."

Paul reached out brushed Torterra's head the Tortoise had just collapsed onto its belly relaxing. "Is there something you need Ash? I figured you would be celebrating your… win." asked Paul with a slight pause.

Ash didn't respond immediately and stared at Paul who stared back. The silence was getting uncomfortable; during the silence Pikachu had climbed down Ash's shoulder and had climbed onto Torterra's shell also taking a nap.

"Um Paul I was just wondering something." Ash said quietly.

"What?" Paul said with a raised eyebrow.

"Do ….do you respect me?" Ash finally said.

"What kind of question is that!" Paul said now with both eyebrows raised.

"Do you respect me as trainer and a person." Asked Ash who stared at Paul with a blank expression.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Paul there was no response only silence to the question.

There was another pause, Paul sighed and finally responded now annoyed "yes and no happy now."

"What do you mean?" said a now puzzled Ash.

"As a person yes you have earned my respect!" Paul admitted. "Your ideals of bonding with your Pokémon and being friends with them, I admit I didn't believe that doing something like that would help me become stronger. Also I didn't believe that weak Pokémon could become very strong".

"You proved me wrong, Chimchar never got any stronger under my training but evolved under yours." Paul frowned and continued. "I didn't understand how could it evolve under your training but not undermine, I thought I was superior to you and that you were a weakling." Ash clenched his fist.

"Well im not am I." Ash said sarcastically. "Let me finish!" Grumbled Paul with an even more annoyed expression.

"You lost to me numerous times yet you keep coming back for more, I didn't get that either do you like losing?" Silence was once again his answer. "I thought not, No one does. You surprised me when you said you beat Brandon I didn't believe it then and I still didn't quite believe it till today even though I looked up your profile." Paul took a slight pause and continued "What did you have to beat Brandon that I don't; I finally figured it out today". Some rustling Noise next to them showed that Torterra and Pikachu had awakened and now stared at the both of them.

"What do you mean?" said a calm looking Ash but was anxious inside.

"It's something Reggie said to me after he quit the battle frontier!" Paul's eyes Narrowed and frowned after that statement.

"He said he lacked unique strategies to battle someone of Brandon's level or higher. I didn't believe it I thought he lacked the strength required to beat Brandon considering he had the Regi's. My thought's had merit so I ignored him,…..tsk… look where that got me today."

"What's that got to do with our battle" Ash asked/

"Pika!" "Tor!"

"Ash what you lack in strength you make up in strategies, under that idiocy you show,you have brain in there which can think outside the box. I saw your battle's during the league your Gible launching a Draco meteor with Shuckle in his mouth was genius and your Heracross underground uppercut megahorn was a masterstroke I'll admit. Plus that counter shield of yours is something ive never seen before where do you come up with these Ideas."

Ash didn't know what to say, apart of him agreed with Paul plus he remembered in the past almost all the gym leaders saying he had unorthodox & unique strategies. But that didn't help him against Paul in the past.

"Anyone can strategize Paul". Ash finally said.

"PAH!" grumbled Paul. "of course anyone with a brain can strategize but not everyone can think outside box like you can and come up with them so quickly, who the Hell would think to use a physical move like flare blitz underground to clear my Drapions toxic spikes or negate the disadvantages of Giga Impact by spinning!" Paul now yelling at Ash.

"It didn't help me in the past against you." Ash responds in a quiet voice.

"That's because you're an idiot." Paul grumbled again still reeling from his previous thoughts.

"Hey!" "PIKA!"exclaimed Ash and Pikachu.

"You could have breezed through the gym's in this region, you have a couple of powerhouses like your Sceptile & Snorlax rusting away in Pallet." Spat Paul.

"I like to start fresh every region to catch new Pokémon and train them up through my journey". Said Ash with a frown slowly forming on his face as well.

"While neglecting the rest of your Pokémon back in Kanto!" Paul snapped back.

Ash reeled as if slapped.

" You could have rotated your team around so they all got more experience, more than half your Pokémon are unevolved if you had trained them along with your Sinnoh Pokémon they'd probably have evolved and be evenmore Powerful then they currently are."

" That may be true but it's not all about power they can choose if they want to evolve I'll work with them either way it's their choice, unevolved Pokémon can beat evolved ones it's all about their determination & inner strength." Ash said with conviction in his voice. "Pikachu!" Pikachu nodded in agreement."

"And how do you know if they want to evolve if you don't continue to train them to get to a level where they can evolve!" Ash didn't have a response to that.

"That is why I said yes and no to respecting you."

"I respect you as a person you wouldn't purposely hurt or does anything wrong by your Pokémon and people in general, that I or anyone can tell. But I don't completely respect you as a trainer, I respect your ability to command your Pokémon not many can think like you can. You don't give up and your determination rubs off on your Pokémon in desperate situations." Ash, Torterra & Pikachu could only stare as Paul continued his speech.

"How else would you beat a Regice with a Pikachu no matter how powerful a mouse it is it's still against a legendary, yet your Pikachu loses to my freshly caught Elekid it's a wonder if that mouse of yours is lazy or that victory was a fluke." Paul chuckled as Ash & a sparking Pikachu Glared.

"What I'm saying is the deeper the connection you have with your Pokémon the stronger their determination to win is and the bigger there inner strength as you demonstrated today."

"I didn't believe in those connections but I do now watching you and my bro…"Paul didn't finish.

"Anyway as I said before I don't completely respect your ability as a trainer you can battle and battle well especially when you actually have strong Pokémon in your corner, unlike when we first met." continued Paul.

"Torterra must been on a long walk for you think all this." Ash said with a sour chuckle.

"Do you understand why you kept losing to me?" continued Paul ignoring what Ash said.

"Ha?" blinked Ash.

Paul sighed and slapped a palm to his head. "What I'm saying!, is that you could have done a lot better here in Sinnoh and probably beat me as well sooner if you thought thing's through."

"You don't plan ahead that is your key flaw and most times your downfall" stated Paul. (AN: you know it's the truth people).

"You might have the brain to dig you out of most situations when you're at a disadvantage strength wise, but you still need power coupled with your strategies to be the complete package. Do you get it your strategies might have helped you hang in there when battling but you don't have the brute strength to back up those strategies and Lake Valor was a clear example of that."

Ash had to agree there he made a small comeback with Pikachu & Monferno but they were eventually overpowered by Electabuzz, Ursaring & Magmortar.

"I'm ashamed to admit but your closer than me to being the complete package, I might have the power but I can't think outside the box like you can when in a tricky spot with one foot in the grave" Paul said almost painfully.

Ash looked and said "Thanks paul" with a small smile. Both Pikachu & Torterra had small smiles as well, Torterra was glad his trainer was changing.

"that's why I don't completely respect you, Lose the Cocky attitude, You can be powerful but you don't show it enough unlike today which showed what you can do with both your brain and Power on display and I admit I was impressed by Infernapes performance. That was best you battled in Sinnoh, you actually gave me a challenge." Paul said with a small smile and his eye's closed.

Paul's eye's snapped open "but the issue still remains, you could have brought a few of your older Pokémon along and used them in your battles while training your new Pokémon till they caught up with their strength or close to it. Doing it that way would have help you immensely against the gym leader's, helping you finish sooner and give you more time to train all your Pokémon for the league. I myself had a full 2 month's spare to train for the league." Paul had a palm on his chest gesturing to himself.

"Woah!" Ash said shocked "I didn't know that."

"You would have to if you had planned ahead!" said Paul.

"Why do you care Paul, why do you care that I've done these mistakes. People wouldn't point this out normally."

Paul turned around giving Ash his back "You frustrate me."

"Ha!" "Pika!" "Tor!"

" I thought I had you figured out yet, a weakling with a couple of strong Pokémon within a group of weaklings." He felt the glare's on the back of his head but soldiered on "Then suddenly I hear you beat Brandon, I didn't believe it and starting researching you, I saw all you past achievement's all the Pokémon you've used in past tournament's & the battle frontier. It made no sense that you would have all these strong Pokémon but not use them against me or others in Sinnoh. Are we not worthy of your best, you claim to want to beat me yet you had the likes of your Charizard, Sceptile, Snorlax Donphan & others in reserve waiting to be used at anytime. That was when I figured out your problem and realised it was easily solved if you bothered to rotate your pokemon and battled people with them."

"The reason I care is because I like testing myself against powerful opponent's ive never come across someone as unique as you, and battling you would help me achieve my goal of beating Brandon and all his Regi's. Here in Sinnoh no one else I've seen comes close to your 'potential' power other than this Tobia's character."

"I understand." said Ash looking solemn.

"I was hoping you use your other Pokémon against me today, but in the back of my mind I figured very quickly you'd use the same six as Lake Valor."

"They wanted redemption along with myself I had to use them!" Ash said passionately.

"Don't let pride be your downfall you saw what happened to me against Brandon!" Paul snarled and turned around.

"It was probably the wrong move but I stick by my decision." Ash calmly replied.

"Alright I'll except it, what are going to do against Tobias, you have a few day's I do hope you plan out what you're going to do against him he's not someone to mess around with." Paul said with narrowed eyes.

"He a mystery there's not much to go on other his Darkrai but that's it really!" Ash said looking to the sky scratching his head in thought of Tobias.

A zapping sound was heard along with thud, I looked see Pikachu scratching his probably sore behind on the ground and an empty space with Torterra returning to his poke ball.

"Well good luck then with your match." said Paul walking away.

"Wait!"Ash screamed startling Paul & Pikachu.

"Will you stay for my battle!" Ash said in small voice.

"I was planning to go back to Veilstone then challenge Brandon if possible." Replied Paul who paused in his walk.

"Please!" pleaded Ash This seemed to really shock Paul who completely turned around.

"Why should I" Narrowing his eyes, as Pikachu look back and forth between the two in bewilderment.

"Your right I'm an idiot I could have rotated my Pokémon to have an easier time here and ... I regrettably have neglected my Pokémon at home." That was painful for Ash to say, since he cared for his Pokémon a lot.

"Your right I don't plan ahead and tend to rush into things head first, but this time I can't really afford to do that my opponent has a legendary and the rest of his team is mystery!" said in a stronger voice.

"Paul let me show you that trainer you want to battle so badly, watch me battle Tobias and afterward if you still think I'm that 'Trainer' we'll have a rematch. What do you think." Ash said in a strong voice with his shoulder's squared facing Paul waiting for his reaction.

After a slight pause Paul starting walking away again but stopped just before he was out of sight, and glanced over his shoulder.

"Then I look forward to meeting him, I'll be back for the battle I'm going to bed and then I'll train for the rematch". Paul replied as walked out of sight but Ash noticed the smile on his face as he left.

Ash stood still staring after Paul's departure for a few minute before feeling a prod to his right leg from Pikachu.

"Sorry Pikachu just Thinking." Ash took another glance and thought 'And I can wait for the rematch either'.

"Man what time is it?" asked Ash as glance down to his watch.

"6:30!" Ash said shocked "My god we were talking for an hour!"

"Pika!" Pikachu shrugged.

"Oh well I still don't feel like heading back, my head's still reeling from Paul's speech." Ash said jokingly.

Ash lied down on the grass with Pikachu by the lake looking at the stars. "Still what he said made sense, I should apologise to others back home when I see them." Ash said staring at the sky.

"Chu." Pikachu softly agreed seemingly half asleep.

"What a great sky I wonder how the others are seeing it in Kanto." said Ash in wonder.

No response was received; ash glanced to his side and saw that Pikachu was a sleep. Ash chuckled and continued watching the star thinking about what changes he need to make tomorrow for training in preparation for Tobias.

'Just you watch Paul I'll show you what this complete package can do' was Ash's final thought as he drifted to sleep under the full moon.

End Chapter


	3. Chapter 3

 

**AN: Once more I don't own Pokemon or any of it characters.**

**'thought's'**

**"Talking" anyway on with the show:**

**Chapter 3 enjoy :)**

Dreamscape

A packed stadium watched the heated battle currently brewing on the battlefield.

BOOM! A blast of dark energy narrowly zoomed past Ash's head as he ducked. Quickly getting up and looking over the battlefield, Ash was glad to see Pikachu had dodged the lightning fast attack, chills were going down Ash's spine as he quickly counterattacked.

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack to get in close" Ash ordered, his expression uncharacteristically nervous.

Pikachu charged his opponent with all the speed it could muster, crossing the field in only a few seconds.

"Darkrai, stop that mouse in its track's with Icebeam" ordered Tobias, and the ice blue beam was launched as quickly as it was formed.

"Jump over it and use the momentum to spin into an Iron tail" Ash quickly countered. The electric mouse jumped over the beam as it froze the ground and spun horizontally head over tail; coming out of the spin Pikachu used the momentum to add power to the Iron tail. It connected and Darkrai was launched into the ground forming a small crater from the extra force of the blow.

"Darkrai, use Dark Pulse." Tobias said calmly. Darkrai quickly got up brushed off the blow, quickly forming rings of dark energy and fired with extreme force.

"Pikachu counter with Thunderbolt!" Ash shouted quickly. Pikachu cheeks sparked brightly before launching the electric blast in return. The Dark Pulse sheared through the thunderbolt like it didn't exist and continued unopposed.

"Quick, dodge it!" Ash screamed with a tone of desperation. Pikachu was able to narrowly dodge to the left, but was quickly bombarded by several more Dark Pulse attacks. Ash was screaming for Pikachu to dodge, worried for his little friend's safety.

Due to the exhaustion that started to wash over the electric type, Pikachu was unable to dodge on of the Dark Pulse attacks that zoomed towards it. Pikachu instinctively launched the strongest Thunder it could in order to defend against the barrage.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled in desperation and worry as the Dark Pulse attacks collided. The explosion knocked Ash off his feet and temporarily blinded the whole stadium.

"Ketchum's Pikachu has been hit by a flurry of Dark Pulse attacks. Is this it for the Electric Mouse?" Yelled the M.C. through the speakers which echoed through the stadium .

"Pikachu! "There was a tense silence over stadium as Ash looked at the smoke screen in front of him, his head bending at every possible angle, thinking that that will help him see through the thick cloud of dust and smoke. When the dust cleared enough for Ash to see, he quickly spotted the mouse close by on the ground, still conscious and facing his direction and struggling as it tried to move.

"Pikachu get up, come on buddy! You can do it" Ash yelled, trying to motivated the mouse. Pikachu was slowly struggling to get onto all fours as Darkrai approached from behind forming another Dark Pulse between its claws.

"Oh no...Pikachu get up! Get out of there" Ash yelled, now very worried for his little buddy's safety. The double helix of concentrated dark energy was launched as Ash continued to yell at Pikachu to get up "Get up, get out of there! Please get up, get up Ash! ASH! Get up"…!

Lily of the Valley Lake 10:08 pm

"AHH!" Eye's flashed upon as the startled youth jump in the air from the literal shock he just took from the chuckling mouse. As Ash looked up to the night sky, a familiar face in brock looks down at him.

"Good Morning Sleeping beauty or should I say night" said the chuckling Brock.

Ash rolled his eye "What are you doing here".

"Looking for you off course, you said it was just short walk and now it's already 10pm"Brock said.

"What!" Ash jumped to his feet and looked as his Poketch.

(AN: I think it's called that)

"I've been asleep for over 3 hours!" yelled Ash. Brock chuckled but now looked a bit confused.

"You, were gone longer than that what we you doing the rest of the time".

" I ran into Paul" Ash said as they walked back to the Pokémon Centre with Pikachu again placed on his left shoulder.

"And?" , " And we talked" Ash said evasively.

"About What?" asked Brock.

"Can we talk about this tomorrow, please it's a bit hard to explain" Ash said hurriedly as they walked into the Pokémon centre. They climb up 2 flights of stairs reaching their room's floor. They reached a door with the number 205 on the front and Brock pulled out the key for the room and opened the door.

The room itself was quite simple in terms of interior design. A couple of bunk beds with a small dressing table with 2 drawers in between the 2 beds which were placed against the wall under the window. Dawn was snoring away with Piplup on one of the top bunks. There were 2 other doors on opposite sides of the room, and one led to a small bathroom with a shower. The other leading to a small lounge area with a coffee table facing a TV, a conjoined kitchen with a bench top that had 3 stools under it, and finally a small computer in a corner of the room. All in all, it was a lot more spacious then their sleeping quarters.

Ash collapsed on the bottom bunk of the bed under Dawn, not bothering to take off his clothes.

Brock walked to the bathroom with a change of clothes' as he went in he stuck his head out facing ash "Aren't you going to change". Ash stared at the top bunk with Pikachu curled into a ball near his feet already asleep again.

"Nah I'm alright I'll just take off my shoes". Draping his feet over the side of the lower bunk ash took off said shoes and socks before just collapsing back on top of the cover's instantly falling asleep.

Brock came back out to this and stared at Ash for a minute as he snored away considering to wake him up. Brock was still curious in finding out what got into Ash, and what Paul had said to get this kind of reaction.

Deciding against it, Brock climbed into the lower bunk bed adjacent to Ash and got comfortable.

'I'll ask Ash tomorrow he won't be able hold it for long' was Brock's final thought as he descended into sleep, dreaming of Nurse Joy and their future dates.

A pair of eye's snapped open as soon as Brock fell asleep and glanced in his direction who was now mumbling Nurse Joy's name into his pillow.

'Thank God I fooled him, I probably would have caved if he kept probing' thought Ash as he stared above himself once more.

'What was that dream? I mean I've dreamt of the Sinnoh League before and winning, but never losing and viewing something so horrifying like this'.

"What does it mean" Ash whispered out loud.

'Am I doubting myself? Has what Paul said really been affecting me, and that Darkrai, ….. No!, it may be a legendary but it is still a Pokémon and a Pokémon can be beaten'. Ash's eye's narrowed. 'Plus, I've beaten one before' Ash nodded to himself thinking about the Battle frontier with Charizard beating Noland's Articuno for the knowledge symbol.

'And Charizard can do it again' Ash nodded to himself again, a smirk forming on his face as he thought of his old fire type. 'Looks like I'm giving Liza a ring tomorrow.'

'I can do this. I just need to pick the right Pokémon and make a proper strategy and I'm set and I have Brock to help me'. Ash thought, now satisfied.

Ash glanced out the window seeing a few Murkrow flying by, cawing under the full moon.

'I'll worry about this tomorrow. I just got to keep positive'. Taking a quick, final glance down at Pikachu, ' I won't ever let that happen to you for real you can count on it buddy' thought Ash as he buried his head into the soft pillows and slept once more, but this time a lot more peacefully.

Pokémon centre-The Gang's Bedroom-7:30 am

The young hero's eye's slowly opened. Ash rubbed his eyes and looked around, still very drowsy. Ash slowly got out of bed, hoping not to wake Pikachu up who was releasing soft 'pika's' from its mouth. Carefully opening the door to the bathroom, Ash opened the tap for the cold water in the sink splashing water into his eyes. Feeling a bit more awake now, Ash slowly exited the bathroom to grab some clean clothes to take a shower, Ash could already hear his mother in the back of his head demanding clean underwear for her 'baby'.

Now feeling very disturbed, Ash quickly grabbed the clean clothes and went to have his shower, closing the door behind him.

Ash came out feeling refreshed, both in appearance and mentally. Ash noticed Dawn, Piplup and Pikachu were still asleep, but Brock was missing,

'Probably making breakfast' thought a shrugging Ash as he opened the door to the lounge area before gently closing it behind him.

Ash glanced to the kitchen and saw Brock slaving away at the stove. Deciding not to bother him, Ash went to lounge and sat down. He figured he should prepare for the questions which will soon follow from his best friend.

'Why am I trying avoid it so much? wouldn't it be better to get a second opinion?' Ash continued thinking about what to do, but was brought out of his mind by the heavenly smell coming from kitchen. Quickly getting up, Ash took a stool under the bench-top and simply waited for Brock to finish.

Five minutes later, Brock came across setting two plates, each one with three pancakes stacked with banana, butter & maple syrup on the bench top.

" Good morning! I heard you up get up, so I made breakfast" Brock took a stool next to Ash.

"Thanks" Ash said, taking the plate. "What about Dawn?".

"I have more in the kitchen waiting for her if she wants them when she gets up" There was a moment of silence as the two friends ate their breakfast before Brock spoke up once more.

"Dawn said last night she was going to go shopping today to get out of your hair so you can prepare for the battle in peace". Brock said as he took a bite.

"I would say she knows that she doesn't bother me when training, but I think this more of an excuse." Ash said chuckling to himself. "What about Barry?".

"She's taking him along, I don't think the guy has ever been shopping before with a girl" Brock said chuckling and Ash joined him.

" Don't we know it?" The raven haired trainer chuckled as they remembered their times with May in the Hoenn region. God that girl could shop. Since her father was a gym leader, she'd no doubt be able to buy as much as she could...of course Norman had to pay back Ash and Brock as the two older boys often had to pay for May's things. Norman's wallet felt noticeable lighter on those days.

A loud bang was heard from a closing door and Brock and Ash quickly faced in that direction looking like Deerling caught in headlights. Now seeing Dawn, they both paled, feeling impending doom.

Dawn stared at the two idiots with a now pissed expression.

"I'll let that go this time because I'm running late, I'm supposed to meet Barry at eight so we can go on my shopping spree today" Dawn pissed expression quickly turned gleeful as she jumped up and down Piplup joined her not really understanding what Dawn meant by shopping spree.

(AN: That poor, poor little penguin. May Arceus have mercy on his little penguin soul.)

Both guys in the room sweat dropped.

'Does she have MPD?' both thought.

"Don't think for I second I forgot what you guys said. I'll get you both later." Dawn said quickly turning, pissed again. "I'll see you guy's later!" turning around Dawn and Piplup exited the room.

"I fear for both our wallets Brock" said a nervous Ash.

"You and me both" Seeing shopping in their futures the two quickly changed subject. Ash conveniently forgot to mention the pancakes so helped himself to another stack.

"Ash I didn't bother to ask you last night because you looked exhausted, but now that your restored and your stomach is now raring on all cylinders, I want to know what bothered you so much." Ash realising it will probably be better to just get it over with, agreed.

"What do you want to know?"

"You said you talked to Paul last night, right?" Ash nodded in confirmation, "I want to know what he said that disturbed you so much." Brock said calmly.

Sighing, Ash told Brock all the events of the previous night leading up to the mood he was currently in. There was a silence which lasted a few minutes before Brock finally responded to the info he was just given.

"I see.." Brock began, "So basically he pointed out all your flaws when it comes to being a trainer and the reason he bothered to say all this was to get a challenge which could push him past his current limits."

"Yeah" Ash said now looking down, not feeling hungry anymore. Feeling an arm across his shoulder, Ash quickly looked at Brock seeing him smiling at him.

"I'm glad" Brock said still smiling. Now Ash looked a bit shocked, not expecting that response at all.

"What!".

"Ash do you know how many time we've meaning both me and misty have said to you that you need to strategize more before your battles in the past? Plus there's the fact we've mentioned before that you could rotate your Pokémon so they all could get a good workout and more experience. You've just never listened till now." Brock took a pause and continued.

"Misty and I both realised by the Johto league it would probably take someone on the 'other side of the fence', you could say, to get through to you."

"You mean my opponents?" questioned Ash, who was now pensive.

"Not quite, they could point it out like we have to you before, but it won't have the same impact as certain trainer's".

"Like who, Paul?" said an inquisitive Ash.

"Yes, but who is he to you" asked Brock.

"A rival and now a friend" Ash said with smile on his face.

"Exactly! A rival! In the past you have taken on board what they've said about you and what you could work on, and it's not just Paul you've listened to. Gary, Harrison and Tyson, you've listened to them just as much if not more." Finished Brock.

"That is true, I suppose" muttered Ash now staring at his now cold pancakes.

Chuckling Brock got up and grabbed the plates and emptied them in the bin, before moving to the sink to wash up. He continued speaking to Ash as he washed, his back facing the teenage trainer.

"Now that you know your flaws and understand them, you just gotta try and work on them. I'll help you as much as I can Ash, but the one who needs to change is you. Are you up for the challenge?" Brock glanced over his shoulder looking for an answer.

Ash slowly started chuckling before outright laughing, causing Brock to fully turn around wondering what got into Ash. When Ash had finally calmed down enough speak, the answer honestly made Brock's day.

"I'm ready Brock like I should have been at the Indigo League" and both grinned at that.

After washing up the two went to the PC to check out Ash's opponent, Tobias and see if they've missed something. Ash stared at screen looking over Brock shoulder as he clicked away.

"Anything different Brock" with a sigh ash got the response he was regrettably expecting.

"Sorry Ash all they got info on is his Darkrai. It's only shown four move throughout the whole tournament; Dark void, Dream Eater, Ice beam and Dark Pulse"

A shiver came down Ash's spine at the last move Brock listed. "It also notes that Tobias has beat the entirety of Sinnoh's Gym leader's with ONLY his Darkrai"

Both Brock and Ash looked bit worried with that piece of info. Sure legendary Pokemon were known to be really strong, but...just how powerful was this Pokémon? .

"So he's never used another Pokémon in an official battle?" questioned Ash, who really hoped this wasn't the case otherwise he feel really outgunned.

"Sorry Ash. He's never been forced into a position of needing his second Pokemon" answered Brock.

Ash was shaking and slowly asked "So that Darkrai…clean-sweeped every match! Every single one...3 vs. 3!, … 6 vs. 6! All OF THEM!" Screamed Ash who paused several times in speaking.

"Yes" Brock said with as straight of a face he could make considering the information just produced. Ash looked like someone killed his Growlithe, his brain whirling from all this new info.

'How can I win? I don't even know what I'm up against...how I can I even plan for this guy?' Ash was screaming in his head. Taking some deep breath, Ash tried to calm down and not collapse.

'Alright calm down, if I lose it now I have no chance whatsoever.' Feeling a bit better with that reassurance, the younger trainer looked at the Pewter City gym leader who seemed to be waiting for Ash to finish his inner tantrum.

"You alright?"

"Alright as I can be, but what can I do against this guy, Brock? He's a complete mystery" Ash said as calmly as he could.

"This is where you need to use your head, Ash. Not just in battle and not just completely rely on me. I won't always be here to hold your hand." Brock said facing him still sitting on the computer chair.

"I'll help you train for the battle, but this is where you need to shine Ash. Use this as your test of character, if you will. Can you back up what you said, Ash? Are you really ready to change?" Ash was going to respond, but Brock raised a hand to stop him saying he's not finished.

"Before you say anything, Ash...I know this is a big battle for you considering it's a semi-final and the highest you've ever placed". Brock then got out of the chair and got into Ash's face poking his chest to express his views.

"But, this is also your best opportunity to set you on the path of redemption. Paul said your biggest flaw is you don't plan ahead before battles. I agree!" Brock poked Ash chest extra hard to show that he meant it.

"And now you're against a practically unknown opponent, you only know one of his Pokémon and how powerful it could be and absolutely nothing on the rest of his team. Not even a hint of what type could be. For all you know Tobias could have more Legendary Pokémon, so you are practically fighting blind." Brock paused to allow the information to sink into Ash who looked to be close to collapsing before continuing.

"But this also gives you the chance to really think about which of your Pokémon you believe could adapt and prove to be most effective against Tobias'. It's like chess. You need the right pieces in play for you to have a chance to win. It's up to you to decide who and what those pieces are?" Brock then sat back down on the chair and stared at Ash quietly giving him some time to think.

Ash was really confused. How the hell is a Pokémon battle like chess? How would a pawn or even a king, be useful here?

"Brock who would be the King in my Team?" Ash asked trying to make sense of it all.

Brock chuckled and answered "Answer me this Ash. Who is the most important piece in the game?"

"The queen" was Ash's instant answer. "She can do more than any other piece and if you lose it you're at a disadvantage" Ash said nodding to himself.

"You're wrong. It's the king for without the leader, the others fall into disarray leading to defeat" Brock said simply. "As for who's the king...that should be obvious."

Ash really wasn't sure about the answer. 'Who could it be Pikachu? Without him in my life I'd probably die. Maybe Charizard, he is my Strongest Pokemon. If he were a chess piece and I lost it, I'd be at a big disadvantage'.

"I think it's Pikachu or Charizard" Ash finally answered.

"Wrong" was Brock's quick response. Really looking annoyed, Brock answered for Ash.

"Ash it's not a Pokémon" Ash's eyes widened in surprise. "The King is YOU, Ash!". Now Ash looked really shocked.

"But why me I'm not strong like Pikachu and the others"

"Remember what I said...with the King out of the way, the rest of the pieces pretty much fall over and in chess that's a defeat. The King rules over his subjects, protecting his kingdom. Ash, your Pokémon are your subjects and you are their leader or as I said, King. You protect them as best you can and raise them to get stronger."

"A king also gives commands to his subjects who follow those orders to protect the kingdom. It's the same as being a trainer. You give your Pokémon commands to help them succeed in battle and victory to them is like showing they can protect their 'King' from any threat to the 'Kingdom'." Brock said.

"So it's like chess...an actual kingdom with 2 types of kings, but with the same purpose." Ash concluded. "That's really deep, I've never thought of battles like that. I honestly don't think many others do either" said Ash as he let it all sink in. Brock rubbed the back of his head looking a bit sheepish.

"Well that's just my opinion, I'm sure there are other's better than mine."

Ash smiled "But I think your right. Brock they do sound similar to me, I just have to figure out my 'pieces'".

"Well good luck with that, and look over your Pokémon carefully then wake me up. We'll make the changes. Then we'll go out and train them as best we can." Finished Brock, now smiling.

Ash agreed "Right!"

"I'm going to take a nap Ash. I'm still a bit tired. Come get me when you're ready." Brock yawned and turned around and walked to the bedroom door. After opening it slightly, a flash of yellow went flying past.

(AN: No it's not the Yondaime Hokage)

Said flash was scurrying across the room before it climbed up Ash's left shoulder, who was sitting down at the computer again for some more info. This time on himself to see how accurate the system was .

"Enjoy your nap Brock" said Ash with Pikachu now licking his cheek in greeting.

A 'Thanks' was heard by Ash, followed by a closing door.

"Good morning buddy, enjoy your long nap" Ash said jokingly and receiving a slight jolt in reply.

"Pikapi Pikachu!" Was all he got as he looked at his own info page.

"Check this out Pikachu, very accurate isn't it." Ash's page had a picture of all his Pokémon that had used in official battles along with his achievements.

Trainer: Ash 'Satoshi' Ketchum

Home town: Pallet Town, Kanto Region

Age: 15

Trainer Id Number: 8654870PJ

Leagues competed: Indigo League: Top 16

Silver Conference: Top 8

Ever Grande Conference: Top 8

Lily of the Valley Conference: Currently Competing

Other accomplishments: Orange Island League Winner

Kanto Battle Frontier Completed

Position to be the new Pyramid King: Declined

"They actually recognised The Orange Island League now, Pikachu! Isn't that awesome?"

"PIKACHU!" Both were happy with this and exited the page and logged off the PC.

Ash got up out of the chair and went to the coffee Table, he took Pikachu off his shoulder, startling the Mouse Pokemon, and placed of him on the table.

"I'll be back in a second Pikachu" Ash went towards the bedroom as quietly as he could and opened door and snuck into the room.

Brock was asleep again, but this time there was no mumbling of Nurse Joy.

'Probably got that date he wanted' mused Ash as he went to his backpack and pulled out a pen and some paper. His mother really knew what to pack.

'I'd be lost without her.' The young trainer laughed in his mind. Quietly exiting the room and closing the door behind him, Ash went back to the couch and placed the paper and pen on the table by Pikachu.

"Alright, here we go...it's probably best to write down all the Pokémon I own currently and go from there" Ash said to himself. "If I include Gible, I have 17 Pokémon at the lab, the rest of my Sinnoh team and Pikachu make another 6". Ash noted "Plus there's Charizard, Squirtle and Primeape to call on if I need him. Speaking of Primeape, I need to apologise to him for not coming to see him" said Ash as he looked guilty. He had neglected the fighting type for a while.

"And I had Pidgeot, but he could be anywhere right now since he's travelling with that flock of Pidgey and Pidgeotto. Lapras is with his herd...Butterfree..." Ash sighed to himself as he remembered his old friends that he released. Pidgeot, Lapras and Butterfree were his first few Pokemon that he ever caught. Getting over his feeling of melancholy, Ash returned to work.

Doing some quick math in his head Ash came up with himself currently owning twenty-six, 'Well fifty-five if I take into account the total amount of Tauros I have.' Ash sweatdropped. 'Why did I catch so many of those things?'

"We got a lot of partners, don't we buddy? Now we just gotta pick a team." stated Ash and glanced at Pikachu who nodded in agreement.

"With you in the team we need to pick five more and I think it's a no brainer considering that we could be out classed in power is to counter with even greater power which spells out...Charizard".

Pikachu nodded to that selection. "Going on that trend Snorlax, Sceptile and Infernape would be other options, but I should go over all my Pokemon first." Ash decided to write the names of the Pokemon he owned excluding Pikachu & Charizard and split them into groups by Region.

The Kanto team had Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Kingler, Muk, Tauros, Primeape and Snorlax.

Ash was in deep thought looking at the group.

'Bulbasaur and Squirtle have been with me the longest and have a lot of battle experience, but what they have in experience, they lack in power which is my current problem as it is' Ash thought with a groan.

'Kingler and Muk are the opposite, they have power, but lack experience and Primeape...I've only ever used once so I don't really know how to go about training and battling with him I need more time before using him. Wow Paul and Brock were right...I really need to start training with my other Pokemon." Ash said as he looked at the electric mouse. The yellow Pokemon nodded.

"Pika Pikachu Pikapi." Ash chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess I really should start rotating more. Well, I guess that leaves Snorlax which would fit this mould perfectly he has a lot of experience with a ton of power, plus he clean-sweeped the match previous to facing Paul.

Ash wrote Snorlax's name on the 'Maybe' list for now, deciding to leave it till the end and see what he had to choose from.

The Johto Team consisted of Totodile, Quilava, Bayleef, Noctowl, Donphan and Heracross.

'Again...same problem as before, except this time almost all of them lack experience other than Heracross and Donphan. Quilava only evolved recently and even with a strong move like Eruption, he's not really ready yet for this kind of power. Adding Heracross and Donphan to the list he moved on.

The Hoenn Group Consisted of Sceptile, Swellow, Torkoal, Corphish , and Glalie.

Now this group was a bit tougher for Ash.

'The big contender here would definitely be Sceptile, plus he has experience against Legendary Pokemon'. Ash thought as his mind placed the image of the grass type when it was fighting the wild Deoxys and Brandon's Regirock.

'That's one more to the list. I can't add Corphish and Torkoal. They're not quite there power-wise, Swellow has a lot of guts and determination like me and he can take multiple Thunderbolts from Pikachu but would it hold out against a Legendary is the question.'

"I'm not sure about Swellow, what do you think Pikachu" turning to face mouse Pokemon who seemed to be in thought. Pikachu turned to face him and shook his head sadly. Ash turned back to the screen in acceptance but, his face was grabbed and turned to face the mouse again by Pikachu's tiny Paws. Pikachu then pointed to it check and pointed at Swellow's picture.

"Pi Pika! Pikachu Pika Pi Chuuuu!"

"I know Swellow can take a hit from your Thunderbolts, but Darkrai can probably still take him out even if Swellow had move to protect itself….." Ash paused in his explanation and an idea struck him.

"Pikachu didn't Swellow absorb your Thunder once? If we could do that again, Swellow might have a chance. I'd have to switch you instantly after you use Thunder for it to work, though."

"PIKACHUUU!" Pikachu jumped up in down in excitement of that idea being used again. Though biologically impossible, it was a great move for Swellow to absorb the Thunder attack.

'Thunder amour...that sounds like a good name, but I'm still not quite sure. I'll still add him though.' Pencilling Swellow's name in, Ash looked at his biggest problem of the group.

'Glalie...what do I do with you? He has a lot of power going for him, but he's one of the youngest and least experienced Pokémon I own.' Ash groaned again realising it was his fault he didn't train Glalie more and he'd be a lot more comfortable in using him ,then he'd have a good choice to use against a mystery team. Considering how powerful this guy was, there was a good chance he has a Dragon type on his team somewhere.

'There's always a dragon type.' Ash thought back to Drake from the Orange Islands, Clair the gym leader of Blackthorn City, Drake from the Hoenn League's Elite Four and Lance the Dragon Champion. Every single one them were unbelievably strong and the thing in common between them all was that they all trained at least one dragon type Pokemon.

'But do I risk him this is an even bigger risk than Swellow since he's more likely to make a mistake because of the inexperience.' Deciding to pencil down Glalie on the list anyway, he'd decide what do when he finished.

The last team and his current team would be difficult as well since this had been his most evolved team but also one of his most inexperienced as well.

The list consisted of Staraptor, Torterra, Infernape, Buizel, Gliscor and Gible.

'I can't pick Torterra this time. I'm still not quite comfortable with his battle style and I need to build up his defence more so some training with Snorlax should fix that. Also, that Darkrai is said to move really quickly and without a countermove like Earthquake which affects the entire battlefield, Torterra would be defeated easily.' Moving on Ash decided against Staraptor as well considering he was already uncertain with Swellow and Staraptor couldn't take a thunderbolt as well as Swellow can.

'Gible's Draco Meteor and Gliscor's Giga Impact would both be useful, but their defensive capabilities aren't very good. They can dodge well, especially Gliscor, but Darkrai is very fast as well so any speed advantage is negated, even Sceptile, my fastest Pokemon, would have trouble keeping up. So I can't use them either'.

'Buizel has a lot of spirit and confidence, but power wise...I'm not so sure I can use him against this opponent.'

"Man I really need to seriously think about my training from now on and I should really think about making some of my Pokemon evolve like Paul suggested. I don't have enough real options that could take on a Legendary Pokemon, let alone the rest of Tobia's team."

Sighing Ash looked at his last real option...the fire monkey that was Infernape.

'Of this group, he is by far the Strongest and coupled with Blaze, just like Charizard, he might give us a shot . But then again I've noticed some his inexperience shine through in that battle against Paul when he got caught by Electivire's tail. Then again it was my fault as well for not realising that fact either.' Adding Infernape's name to the list, he picked up the paper and read the name's he had.

Team:

1) Pikachu

2) Charizard

3)…..

4)…..

5)…..

6)…..

Options: Snorlax, Heracross , Donphan , Sceptile , Swellow , Glalie , Infernape.

'So I have 7 option's to fill 4 slots. This is not good again I'm really lacking in powerhouses and only 2 names scream at me that they have the strength needed for this team and that's Snorlax & Sceptile, although Infernape's not far behind either, but no one else really.' Ash pencilled in Snorlax and Sceptile to the line up, but paused on Infernape.

'Do I really want to use two fire types and if I did only use one there's no way I'm taking out Charizard, but that would leave Infernape out and he deserves a chance with how he battled Paul.'

Ash thought a bit more about Infernape's typing and realised he was part fighting as well. ' But Heracross is also part fighting as well and knows a variety of moves including Sleep Talk. Can I ignore that? I could go with Infernape who has more power and I could teach Infernape some fighting moves to help give him more variety with the few days I have and Infernape is also able to learn more moves rather than just fighting type moves. It could learn moves like Aerial Ace, Shadow Claw, Earthquake and other powerful moves to give it more variety.'

This was a tough decision for Ash. He stared at the 2 names carefully, but the decision was simple when he thought about it.

'I have to go with Infernape, of the rest of group he's the strongest and I need power and speed against this guy if I want a shot to win, plus Heracross's Sleep Talk advantage is negated since Darkrai knows Dream Eater.' Ash pencilled in Infernape for the fifth slot and crossed out Heracross.

'If I'm going on this kind of thinking, Swellow would be out as well. It would be very difficult to even execute the Thunder amour for a power up in a one-on-one battle anyway.' Ash realized because from his battle with Tate and Lize, he realized the thunderbolt had taken a while to return from the clouds to strike down at Swellow.

This left two names.

'The 2 Babies of the group Donphan and Glalie' Ash was in slight disbelief that he even thought about using these two.

'They're both too young for this kind of battle and lack experience, but there probably next in line when it comes to pure power, I..I have to use one of them' Ash gaze was fixated on the two names, constantly switching between the two names and sweat trickled down his head.

'I've had Donphan longer then Glalie so he's not as much of a child anymore and has a lot more experience than him either. Plus with Rollout, a move that gains strength with each time it's used, it could give me an edge. Donphan also knows Hyper Beam, but Glalie's Ice Beam can give me an advantage as I can use it to change the layout of the battlefield.'

Ash groaned really struggling to decide. Pikachu patted its trainer on the head as an act of consoling the teenager.

Professor Oak had mentioned that the two have been getting into fights at the lab with a lot of them being draws and some victories both ways.

"But Glalie is Stronger than Donphan according to Proffesor Oak he just lacks the insight to use his attacks properly and proper direction".

'But that doesn't mean he'd follow my directions perfectly, he did get knocked out by Tyson's Sceptile when I said use Ice Beam on the field , but instead fired to counter the solar beam coming at him instead.'

'If Glalie had followed my instructions to the letter, Sceptile's balance would have been put off so the Solarbeam would have missed its mark and with the newly made ice field, Sceptile's speed advantage would have been sealed making it easier for Glalie to get a win.'

'I would have started a whole Pokémon ahead.' Ash thought now feeling a bit depressed at the lost opportunity to have gotten a higher placing.

'But that can be fixed with some solid training, but it would take a lot of work and I don't know if I have enough time. Is it worth the gamble? This could backfire in my face if I'm not careful and I'd already be a Pokémon behind at the start'.

'Glalie may be more powerful then Donphan, but it only knows 4 moves, but he could have learned some while I was away and Donphan has some powerful moves in its own arsenal Rollout, Earthquake and Hyper Beam are all very useful offensive moves'.

'Enough dawdling I need to make a decision'. It took a solid 10 minutes before Ash finally made a decision and decided to go wake up Brock.

Ash went into the bedroom and shook Brock's shoulder's waking him up. Brock was pretty quick to get up and stated he was only dozing so he was relatively refreshed and ready to go.

They both exited through the front door with Brock locking the door behind them. They went down the two flights of stairs and entered healing part of the Pokémon centre.

"Brock I'm going to call Professor Oak to make the switches, can you use another phone and call Liza to send Charizard over here?" Asked Ash as they walked to the phone booths.

"Sure plus I get to speak to the beautiful Liza" Heart's forming in Brock's normally closed eye's.

Ash looked bit uncomfortable after that statement and went to his booth. He sweatdropped as he saw Brock suddenly float...that's right, float, over to the other phone.

"You do that."

Ash had a brief conversation with Professor Oak who then said "I'll see you soon". This confused Ash, but let the thought go. He had more important matters to deal with, so he quickly finished the call and walked over to Brock's booth just as he got off the phone with Pikachu on his shoulder and four Pokeballs on his belt.

"Is he coming?" asked Ash

"Yes, he'll be here later this afternoon, it's only 10:30 am right now so you've got plenty of time when he arrives to train him." Said a down Brock who trundled next to Ash out of the Pokémon centre.

"What's got you so down, she reject you?" Ash said now giggling with Pikachu.

"Liza said she had a boyfriend." muttered Brock who now looked half hunched over as he walked.

"That all? You look the same as when misty or myself mention Professor Ivy". No longer hearing footstep's next to him Ash turned around and spotted Brock curled into ball and he suddenly teleported to a corner of the hospital. Waves of Depression seemingly seeping off him.

"Don't mention That Name!" muttered the ball that was Brock.

Both Pikachu and Ash sweat dropped, 'I really got to stop mentioning Professor Ivy in front of Brock...I will always wonder what the hell happened there.'

When Brock had regained his composure, they walked along the path leading to the Lily of the Valley Lake. Ash chose to train in this location as a reminder of why he's making these changes, Pikachu jump off Ash's shoulder and stretched its back releasing a loud "CHAA!".

(AN: An odd sound for a PikaCHU to make, isn't it?)

"Ok Ash show me what you've decided on." stated Brock who stood by the Water.

Ash took a deep breath and released three of the four Poke ball's.

After the light was cleared from the initial release, an oversized and overweight bear was shown with a green, bipedal lizard and a flaming monkey. Snorlax released a yawn, Sceptile put a twig in its mouth and crossed its arm waiting for instructions and Infernape starting stretching it legs and hopping around to get the blood going.

Brock analysed the three "So Snorlax, Sceptile and Infernape...good choices. I don't think you could have picked any better with Snorlax's high defence stat, it could hang in there for a prolonged battle and has strong attacking moves. Ice Punch and Hyper Beam makes it a tank and possibly your team's anchor."

Snorlax was busy looking around for food before suddenly feeling tired and plopped down on the soft grass and fell asleep, causing everyone to sweatdrop at the gargantuan Pokemon.

"Sceptile is probably your fastest Pokémon if you could teach it more variety in move's he is pretty much set and its power is nothing to scoff at either." Brock mused out loud and Sceptile took a bit of pride in what Brock said.

"Sceptile." The Grass type puffed its chest out as it swelled with the feeling of pride.

"Infernape has a lot of power going for it even though it lacks some experience compared to these 2" glancing at Snorlax & Sceptile.

"If you teach it to have a cool head and a few more moves, Infernape will be very helpful and increase your chances. These combined with Pikachu and Charizard would probably be the strongest team you've ever assembled." Concluded Brock who then stared at Ash. The brown haired gym leader then noticed the other Pokeball on Ash's belt and raised an eyebrow.

"Where's your sixth Pokémon?" asked Brock.

"I had a lot of trouble deciding on my last one it was really down to either experience or a real gamble." The 2 looked at each other for a moment before both broke out into grins.

"When you think about it as someone who knows you well, the choice is obvious and it's not something me or any of our group really expect to ever change." Said Brock who was now chuckling to himself as Ash sixth Pokemon was released.

Ash just grinned along with Pikachu. "You know me too well, Brock. And you should know that it's either All In or Go Home! And hopefully this is a gamble, that will go my way, right Glalie?"

"Glalllliieee!" cried the frozen Horned Globe who then quickly froze Ash in greeting.

"So cold...oh so very cold."

And done my longest Chapter so Far, hopefully I don't sound insane writing this.

I Know Glalie is not really a child, but with how that Snorunt acted you'd think it was recently hatched.

**AN: Read, Like and review.**

**Peace out Lightningblade49**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Start!

(10:48 am Lily of the Valley Lake/Lakeside.)

"Achoo!" Sneezed Ash who sat by the lakeside with a blanket draped over himself for warmth.

He was still shaking and cold from the sudden …chilling he received from an enthusiastic Glalie who was excited to see him again. Brock was laughing behind him, remembering a similar greeting from Glalie a few days earlier.

"Come on Ash, don't we have training to do?" Ash glanced over his shoulder giving a light glare to his friend before grudgingly getting up and letting the blanket fall off his shoulders. A slight shiver was given from Ash before he composed himself and re-joined the group.

Standing next to Brock, Ash looked over to his. hopefully, match winning team. Sceptile was still standing at attention like a soldier waiting for orders, Pikachu was talking to Glalie, Infernape was punching one of the trees near the group with Mach Punch as a warm up.

'He looks eager for Training.' Ash then looked at his final Pokémon present, sweat dropping. The 'Big Bear' Snorlax continued snoring away.

'Before I do anything he needs to be woken up and there's no way I'm doing it.' Ash shivered remembering the incident with Harrison's Hypno. Being disturbed from its nap is really something you never want to do. Since that day, Snorlax had had an extreme resentment of all Hypno's everywhere. Apparently Bulbasaur has had Snorlax on constant surveillance considering Gary has his own Hypno living in professor Oak's lab and made sure they stayed separated so there would be no outbursts and thus allowing Snorlax to sleep undisturbed.

'I still feel sorry for that Janet lady from the round before.' (AN:Ash's unseen Battle featuring Snorlax)The poor lady was reduced to tears after the battle, as her Hypno was still in the Pokemon Centre recovering from the severe beating Snorlax dished out in its drunken rage.

'I really should have switched out afterwards. Her Slowbro & Grumpig aren't doing much better.' Letting the thought go, Ash decided to focus back on the present.

"Alright, Infernape, can you wake up Snorlax so we can start?" Ask asked the fire monkey politely. Said ape strolled up to the sleeping giant.

'Sorry Infernape, but someone needs to take the fall and the others are already wizened to this.' Was Ash's thought as the rest of the Pokémon, including Brock, looked on with slight winces on their faces, as they expected some pain for the simian Pokemon.

(10 minutes later.)

'Well...at least I'm warm now.' thought the now-charred Ash as Infernape stared at Ash with a murderous glare.

"I recall another one of your Pokémon doing something similar." Brock commented, slightly smirking.

"Shut up!" Ash now was slightly annoyed, but decided it was time to get things moving and call the group together.

Brock decided to stand back and watch to see how Ash will handle the training.

'They need to have a positive mind frame for the match. This is already an uphill battle for them. Ash needs to try and instil some confidence into the group, otherwise this battle could be over before it begins.'

"All right guys, I've chosen you guys for my next battle and it's a big one!"

A chorus of calls were thrown at Ash who didn't understand a word of it, so he just continued on.

"The opponent we're facing is called Tobias and he's a very powerful trainer. He's gotten through this tournament only using one Pokémon, A Darkrai which is a Legendary Pokémon!" Their eyes widened in shock at Ash's statement concerning the legendary Pokemon. However, only Pikachu, who already knew about this, and Sceptile, because of previous experiences with legendary Pokemon, were able to keep it together.

'Did Snorlax actually just open its eyes?' Thought both Ash and Brock, quite startled.

(AN: I'd love to see a Snorlax with its eyes open.)

"Guys calm down." Ash made a 'calm down' motion with his hands. "From numerous past experiences I can assure you, even if they are some of the most powerful beings on the planet, Legendary Pokémon are beatable. Some of you are living proof of that." He briefly Glanced at Pikachu.

"Since Tobias has only used his Darkrai during this tournament, his team is virtually unknown. So we're pretty much going to be fighting blind in this battle. We just have to adapt to what's in front of us, which I believe you guys can do. You all have different strengths and weaknesses, but if we can all work well as a team, we can do this." Ash stopped talking letting his statement sink into to the team.

After a moment Sceptile started glancing around while fiddling with its twig in its mouth.

"Scep Sceptile tile Scep!"

Ash quickly looked at Pikachu to get an answer "What's he saying Pikachu?"

(AN: Ive noticed that Ash can understand Pikachu to an extent, which I believe is because of their close bond. Paul seems to be the same with Torterra which was plain to see after it helped Grotle.)

Pikachu made some weird gestures to help Ash understand.

"Oh, you're wondering why there's only five of you?" His question was answered in the form of a nod from the reptilian Pokmeon.

"Well...your last teammate is on his way over. He's currently training in a specific area built to train there kind, Of you guys here, only Snorlax and Pikachu would know him. He's one of my first Pokémon I captured. He used to be a sweet, cuddly little thing...aaaand then he evolved." Ash sweatdropped as he remembered the moody Charmeleon and even more moody, and also lazy, Charizard. Pikachu, Snorlax and Brock all chuckled as they remembered the scenes with Charizard burning the young boy into living charcoal.

"My Charizard, he's a bit of a hot head, but I'm pretty sure you'll get along with him. Though he may have a bit of superiority complex due to him being one of my strongest Pokemon." Ash finished with nervous chuckle. Sceptile's eyes seemed to narrow at the 'hot head' statement, but other than that, his Pokémon seemed to accept what he was saying overall.

"Alright, first I need to know, other than Pikachu and Infernape, have you all been doing any training while I was away?" Three heads nodded to the question.

Ash smiled "That's great!" He exclaimed. "Have you learnt any new moves while training? If so raise your hand?" Three hands went up once again, impressing both Ash and Brock.

"Ash, you should check what Moves they Know with the Pokedex!" Ash's eyes lit up at the idea and quickly pulled out his Pokedex and pointed it at the first Pokemon in his line of sight which was Sceptile. It beeped and information on his Pokemon showed up on screen and quickly moved down to the Moves section.

Pokémon: Sceptile

Current Moves: Leaf Blade, Pound, Bullet Seed, Solar Beam, Agility, Rock Slide, Synthesis, Leaf Storm, Aerial Ace, Detect and Frenzy Plant.

"Whoa!" Both Ash and Brock's eyebrows shot up in surprise "Sceptile, you must have been training out of your skin. You got some really strong moves in your repertoire now. Leaf Storm, let alone a Flying-type move like Aerial Ace, are very difficult to learn. Plus...I can't believe you've learnt Frenzy Plant as well!" Ash's eyes shone as he imagined the Grass-type before him taking down his opponents with giant tree root, standing victoriously over an unconscious Darkrai. Shaking his head to rid himself of the image, despite it being so very satisfying to him, he turned back to the final evolved form of Treeko.

"It's good to know you've became really dedicated to getting stronger. Even if I'm not training you at the time, I'm beyond impressed." Ash said with a big grin. Sceptile merely smirked at Ash, but given that it stood straighter than usual showed how prideful it felt from the shower of compliments, its chest swelled with even more pride as Brock decided to speak.

"I agree that offensive moves are helpful in battle, but Sceptile showed some pretty good thinking due to it learning those other two moves. A defensive move like Detect will be handy to get around some Super Effective moves and I'm guessing you learned Rock Slide to cover your weakness to flying types ?" Brock analyzed finishing in a question for Sceptile. The Grass type nodded.

"Good thinking!" Ash smiled and turned to next Pokémon in the line, Snorlax. He lifted the Pokedex and got a beep from the machine and new info appeared, replacing Sceptile's.

Pokemon: Snorlax

Current Moves: Body Slam, Rest,protect, Ice Punch, Sleep talk, Earthquake, Double Edge, hyper beam & Amensia.

"Snorlax, you must have been training in your sleep to learn Sleep talk" Laughed Ash. Snorlax seemed to smile, but small blush of embarrassment also appeared at that statement.

"Snorlax has picked up some nice moves. A bit more variety in Earthquake we should focus on adding more Variety to Snorlax's Arsenal. Double Edge will be handy considering it's size and weight and he wont require to stop and recharge like Giga Impact, but I'm very interested where he picked up a move like Amnesia?" Analysed Brock, but seemed confused with the Amnesia move.

Ash grinned, "Maybe it's been hanging around a Slowbro since they seem to be experts on forgetting things. Though it still would have been nice to know earlier that you guys picked up these kind of moves, but I still don't think it would have changed much against Janet. Hope her Pokémon are alright."

"I'm sure they are. Especially since there under the care of Nurse Joy" Brock replied with a hint of admiration, and some hearts in his eyes, added to his speech.

"Anyway it doesn't matter where he learned that move. It will be handy anyway, well done Snorlax." Ash gave Snorlax a thumbs up and moved onto Glalie. Infernape had been the one to raise its hand for the Ice-type seeing as how Glalie was basically a floating head and he had no hands...or arms for that matter.

Glalie was the Pokémon Ash was really interested in knowing about. He still wasn't sure he made the correct choice in picking Glalie. It was a powerful Pokemon, but was a bit inexperienced, only knowing four moves the last time they worked together.

'Another example of my neglect!' thought a disheartened Ash.

But he also realized he'd have to stick by his choice and have faith that he made the right decision. Chopping and changing will ruin the dynamics of the team and his own preparations. The Pokedex's beeping brought Ash out of his inner monologue. The new info that appeared almost caused Ash to feel a bit of relief, but a bit of shock as well.

Pokémon: Glalie

Current Moves: Ice beam, Headbutt, Icy wind, Double team, Protect, Gyro Ball & Blizzard.

'Glalie has really been training hard as well, I wonder if everyone else back home has been training as hard. If so, why? I expected to them to be a bit stronger and maybe learn a few new moves, but 3 - 4 moves a piece and all advanced techniques. They've really become a lot stronger.'

"Glalie..." Ash paused and Glalie seemed to become a bit nervous by the silence, its icy body rattling in anticipation to hear it's trainers comments. "I'm impressed, you've become a lot stronger all those moves are hard to master!" Glalie stopped rattling and its eyes became upside down Us showing that it was happy. It released some vapour from its mouth in response to the praise.

Ash then looked to the rest of the group. "I'm proud of you three. You've worked really hard and I look forward to see what we can do together in battle." Brock then walked over to stand to next to Ash "Hey Ash, I'd check out Pikachu and Infernape, just in case."

"What do you mean? I already know all there moves."

"They might know a move they've never had to use before. Either way it'll be worthwhile checking just in case, you might be surprised." Brock crossed his arms.

Ash looked two pokemon in question to see their thoughts. Both nodded, a response that surprised Ash. 'Maybe they do have another move I don't know about.'

Ash quickly aimed the Pokedex at Infernape.

Pokemon: Infernape

Current Moves: Flamethrower, Mach Punch, Dig, Flame Wheel, Feint, Fire Spin and Flare Blitz.

"Cool, you know Fire Spin." Ash smiled. Infernape pounded its fist against its chest and smirked confidently. Looking back over at the list though, Ash raised an eyebrow at the move Feint, wondering what it was.

"Hey Brock, do you what the move Feint is?"

Brock scratched his chin in thought "Well I do know that it's one of, if not the only move, that can bypass Protect and Detect so I suppose it's a good surprise move to have."

'Interesting, but I need to get more info on Feint. We might be missing something.' Ash Looked down to the Pokedex deciding to use one of its other features. He rarely used its Move Database , quickly typing in feint The moves Info appeared on screen it was quite brief and to the point.

'An attack that hits a foe using Protect or Detect, It also lifts the effects of those moves.'

"Interesting definitely a handy move for the close combat type of Pokemon like Infernape. He could follow up breaking through Protect with a barrage of Mach Punches. Ash you should look into teaching Infernape Close Combat."

"Sounds like a good idea. Anyway let's check out Pikachu!"

Ash then pointed the Pokedex to Pikachu wondering if he also had a surprise waiting for him.

Pokemon: Pikachu

Current Moves: Thunderbolt,Thunder Wave, Quick Attack, Thunder, agility, feint, Double Edge, Iron tail & Volt Tackle.

Ash was in Shock "So Pikachu knows Feint as well? Pikachu, why didn't you use it against Elekid when we first battled Paul?"

"Pika!"Pikachu was shaking it's head back and forth.

"Pikachu probably didn't know Feint then. It probably was trying to learn Feint to surprise Electivire if they battled again in the future, but Paul hasn't really used Protect against Pikachu since the first time they battled." Concluded Brock.

"I suppose you're right. I don't remember him using Protect much anyway, Feint will definitely be handy in future. I don't remember using Thunder wave or Double Edge before?"

"Ash you have had Pikachu use both moves before, but they were only a handful of times mainly when we traveled Kanto so at least four years ago, it probably slipped your mind."

(AN: Ash has used Thunder Wave before, but it was only briefly. One of those times being when Ash caught Pidgeotto, and I have seen Pikachu use Double Edge a few times in kanto but they were rare appearances.)

"I suppose." said a slightly dejected Ash, he couldn't believe he forgot about those moves. He could think of a few times where Thunder Wave would have been beneficial.

"Anyway Ash, forget about the past. Let's focus on the present. We have training to do so I suggest have your Pokemon do a bit of a warm-up. We still have to wait for Charizard, so why not have them do 5 laps around the lake. That should loosen them up" Brock suggested.

"Good idea, all right you heard Brock. So 5 laps around the lake don't wear yourself out so do a nice even pace. It's not a race." The group took off to the begin their laps with Pikachu in the lead, but Sceptile was quickly taking that position. Snorlax however, just stood there before turning to Ash. It then pointed at itself.

"Snor Snorlax?" Ash blinked in confusion as he watched his gargantuan Pokemon, but given from its laziness and the fact that it didn't take off after the others allowed Ash to easily decipher his Pokemon's dialogue.

"Yes Snorlax...you have to run too." Snorlax frowned. "If you do...I'll give you some of Brock's Pokemon Food." Ash bribed. Brock decided to join the encouraging of the sleepy giant and waved up a bag of his specially made Pokemon Food. Suddenly, much to the surprise of the two trainers, Snorlax took off at a very speedy pace, well speedy for a Snorlax that is.

"Wow...Snorlax really gets motivated when you bring food into the equation." Ash and Brock sweatdropped. The ground shook as it took off after the group.

As the group continued their laps, Ash and Brock both sat down by the lake with Brock pulling out a notepad and pen from his pocket, looking at Ash questionably.

"All right Ash." The younger trainer turning to his friend at the mention of his name. "What exactly do you want to do with this training? I promised I'd help you out with the actual training, but you have to have a goal for the next two days you have to train. So Ash what do want to achieve ?"

"Alright Brock, I've thought about this carefully and after seeing what my Pokémon have learnt while I was away, it doesn't change much of my original planning, but what I want to achieve is really getting use to battling with my older Pokémon again. I haven't really used them for at least a year and it's important to get back in sync with using your Pokémon. I'd like to teach them a few more moves on top of the ones they've already learnt." Was Ash's instant reply.

"Do you have specific ideas in mind for certain Pokémon?" Questioned Brock.

"Well for starters, Infernape needs more experience battling experienced Pokémon, so I'm thinking of having him spar with Charizard a bit when he arrives. They've had similar experiences so I can see them bonding."

"What about moves?"

"Well, I dont have much time but there are alot of options like a few more fighting moves like Close combat and Brick break, Thunder punch would be great to defend himself against Water types. Pikachu could teach Infernape Iron tail and we could try having Snorlax teach him Protect as well if we have enough time. Between the two of us I reckon we could get it done." Explained Ash.

"Interesting choice of move selection. We'll see about Teaching some of them but there might be other options which we havent explored yet, but I'd honestly consider trying to teach Infernape Calm Mind first. I don't mean to sound negative, but Infernape's just like you Ash. You both are very spirited and get pumped up very easily. This move can help him calm down and really focus when in battle, plus the additional power boost to long range moves like Flamethrower is the icing on the cake." Brock said while writing down all the ideas Ash suggested.

Now that Ash thought about it, he realised that Infernape was indeed similar to himself, taking after his Trainer. 'Brock's right. A move that helps him relax in battle will definitely help with his concentration.'

"Alright Ash keep going. We'll do Pikachu next. What are your thoughts?"

Ash wasn't as sure what to teach Pikachu, but he did think about having the electric mouse learn a few more attacking moves with a defensive move thrown in. "I thinking about about teaching Pikachu Brick break. He's witnessed it enough times so he shoould pick it up pretty quickly, maybe Shockwave since it's a move that can guarantee a hit and it will help save some electricity for longer battles. Also maybe Light Screen, a defensive move, while training Pikachu a bit more on his speed. I believe he could be faster."

Brock gave some input while writing down on his notepad "I'd teach it a Move called Return Ash, it's a move that gets stronger depending how close the Pokémon is to its trainer and you two have a really close relationship. I'd just about label you as brothers."

Ash gave a nod to that he's heard of Return before, but didn't really know how to teach it to a Pokémon, but he supposed the Pokedex would know something about learning the move. If not there was always Professor Oak who could help. Ash decided move onto the next Pokemon.

"Snorlax needs improvement on his dodging. He's very deceptive in his speed for his size, but dodging is vital as well. Snorlax's endurance doesn't need much improvement, but some new moves would be nice long range moves in particular like Focus Blast and Thunderbolt but im not sure theres enought time to learn both. Also Considering Snorlax's size, Heavy Slam should be considered, maybe Focuspunch as well."

Brock agreed with Ash so they moved onto the next Pokemon as the group of Pokemon came sprinting past beginning their second lap with Sceptile and Pikachu in the lead and Snorlax trailing behind, shaking the earth as he passed.

"Well Glalie mainly need to get more experience so alot of mock battles, as well as making sure he gets used to listening to me consistently in battle. I don't want the same mistake as the Evergrand Conference. I might try to teach him Explosion as I think it would definitely be a surprising move for him to have especially if things get out of hand with Darkrai which I hope not. Iron Head and Hyperbeam are possibilities but are difficult to learn, another defensive move like Light Screen would be good. Since he's young I don't know if he can pick up Sheer Cold at this point so I'll leave that be till after the league it would take much time to learn with Glalies inexperience.

Brock had nothing important to add, so they moved onto Sceptile.

"Sceptile is a smart Pokemon and a workhorse. He obviously knows his own weaknesses and is obviously trying to work on them considering he learnt Detect. I'd like to teach him Substitute as well as a back up if possible try and make it instinctive if he can't dodge. A bit more variety in Sceptile's moves would be nice so I'll try to hammer in Dargon Pulse and maybe Focus Blast. but I could instead Maybe teach something to increase Sceptiles Attacking stats like Sword Dance. But what I really want to do, training wise, is work with Sceptile on his arm speed to match his ground speed. He's generally a quick Pokemon, probably the fastest Pokemon I own, but I noticed when he uses Leaf Blade his slashes while could be a lot quicker. I figure him carrying some weights on his arms would help in the long run, but there's not enough time for that to be really effective before battling Tobias."

Ash paused and added as an afterthought. "If his slashing speed could match his ground speed it would be very difficult to beat him in close range battle, That's what I believe at least."

There was silence between the two, other than the earth shaking again as the group of pokemon went past again, beginning their third lap.

After another moment Brock had an idea.

"Perhaps you could try and use Sceptile's agility to not only increase Sceptile's leg speed, but Arm speed as well. Its merely a hypothesis, but I've heard that with respect to attacks like Agility and Quick Attack, they have been said to increase the speed of the receptors in your legs allowing for high speed movement. If he could do the same to his arms, your idea will have merit and if you could take the idea itself a step further and apply it to the whole body, his reaction speed should increase significantly along with his slashing speed. I don't know how effective it will be, it could have a big toll on his body and I doubt Sceptile could use it for long periods so you have to test it carefully, but if it's possible, this could be effective. The question is, how to increase Agility's range and if not Agility, is there another move that could something similar?" Brock was pondering to himself.

(AN: I honestly was thinking along the lines of A the fourth Raikage Lightning Armour from Naruto and Irene's Quick sword in Claymore but more the latter.)

Ash was slack jawed at the response. He wasn't even thinking that far ahead on the possibilities. He didn't really know what to say he was brought out of his thought as his Pokémon came past once more.

"Ash, worry about it later. This will take a bit of time to fine tune the concept so we'll try it after lunch!" Brock said trying to bring Ash back to earth.

"Ok." But it was still very hard for Ash to let go of, but he was brought of his thoughts by a roar.

"CCCHHAAAAARRRRRRRR!" The loud cry came from above, accompanied by a burst of flames coming at them. Knowing who it was Ash didn't move and merely sighed.

"Does he really have to do this every time I meet him?" Ash asked himself.

Brock quickly moved out of the way as Ash was engulfed with flame, sweatdropping as he saw Ash not even attempt to get out of the way. When the flames died down, Ash breathed out of puff of grey-black smoke before the ground shook next to him. A toothy grin met his deadpan look as the draconic Pokemon nodded at its handy work.

"Really, do you have to burn me every time?" He asked. Charizard gave an amused growl and a thumbs up causing Ash to frown.

"As I said earlier, I recall another one of your Pokémon doing something of a similar greeting." A very amused Brock said to the smoking, blackened Ash who'd been burnt for a second time of the day.

"Charizard, burn Brock for me would you?" The Flame Pokemon turned its eyes on the squinty eyed trainer. The former gym leader released a bark of laughter when it shook its head 'no' before sitting down and curling up like a cat. It released a loud yawn before closing its eyes and going to sleep.

"Charizard...oh how I hate you sometimes." The boy leered at his dual type Pokemon. Charizard responded with another blast of flame to the face before returning to its slumber. Ash licked his fingers and a lock of burning hair was doused with an audible hiss.

"Burnt three times in one day that's a record and it's only Morning. At least you're definitely warm now." He added.

"And again, shut up!"

END CHAPTER  
AN: Hopefully this was alright needed some training done.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter will introduce Cynthia who will be 19 in this so the pairing works a bit better since I believe Ash would be around 16 at this point. Ash will definitely act both confident and nervous around her at first we'll see if that changes as the story goes.**

**Anyway on with the new chapter hopefully it makes up for the long wait tried to fix the grammar enjoy.**

**(2 days later) Lily of the Valley Lake 8pm**

Lily of the valley's Lake beauty at night never stopped to amaze Ash with Volbeat & Illumise dancing across the sky, the glow reflecting on the calm water's surface under the bright full moon It's presence clear as a bell no clouds in site.

While this entire site would normally mystify the average person Ash had always enjoyed looking at the stars more than anything, lying down hands behind his hatless head just enjoying the sounds of nature it relaxed him when he felt stressed. Normally he would have company on his nightly views but he was alone tonight, he had left Pikachu behind in his room his buddy was exhausted from the harsh Final day of training. He himself had been unable to sleep so he had come back to this same lake he had met Paul a few nights ago just to clear his mind.

Both day's had been quite rough on his team the Pokémon he had left at the lab and Charizard in Particular, because of the long absence of him battling with them and readjusting to their battle styles and power which had off course grown over the time Ash had spent away from them on his Journey. Between the pair it was decided Ash himself would do one on one training with each of his Pokémon individually while Brock would help with move tutoring in between.

He had mostly left the move tutoring to Brock trusting in his best Friend to come through, but it had been his own decision on which Moves to go with which he mostly went on his gut but did take Brock's advice on board he was an experienced Trainer himself and he'd learned a lot from him.

Teaching new moves so soon before an important battle had been very tricky so ultimately Brock had suggested 2 new moves at most would be the best possible outcome so that his Pokémon could get comfortable in use of said Techniques and for Ash himself to come up with strategies for their use during the battle, although he had struggled with that at first since he was more an instinctive type of battler as pointed out by people he's met over his Journey and reminded again most recently improvement was steady though.

During this time Dawn had gone shopping both day's dragging the unfortunate Barry along who had wanted to see Ash's training and deep down get away from the maniac shopper. They apparently had encountered Zoey in one of the convenience stores who had arrived a few days ago her presence had not helped Barry despite her laid back attitude she was just as bad as Dawn being 10 & 12 respectively it was understandable they hadn't developed that restraint yet of an older person.

'The amount of money they received for their high placing's definitely didn't help, kids that age don't need that much money.' Ash mused.

Dawn had received a nice chunk of change for finishing runner up in her first Grand festival as had Zoey for being the winner , probably being the first time they had seen those numbers in there account had definitely brought out there greedy sides, Ash had been tempted to get in touch with Johanna and Candice light the torch and see the fireworks fly, but decided against it while he himself never spent mass amounts of money like Dawn & Zoey currently were, he did get embarrassed a lot by his overbearing Mother and her underwear comments beside they'll get it from them later when there Bank statements arrive back home. While they can access their own Money, managing their accounts and receiving bank statements is a different story.

Johanna will probably know anyway very soon and he was certain Candice will find out somehow with how close she is to Zoey. It was good having those kind of people in your life to set you on the straight and narrow and learn from your mistakes Now he just needed his own mother to stop acting like he was still ten.

He was grown man now of sixteen God Dammit!

'They might think the amount they got is large, but it's nothing on the Battle Frontier.' thought Ash smirking he was quite pleased with his own recent big payday he received after finally defeating Brandon on the third attempt, well second he didn't count the time being possessed. It had made his travels in Sinnoh much more comfortable than any of his other journey's, while the money from all the his other league successes and the Orange league were nothing to scoff at for a kid his age Scott just seemed to be made money.

'He is funding his own league basically and there are more branches opening up in other regions as well if Barry's dad Palmers anything to go by.' Mused Ash thinking of the battle with Ryhperior that battle in particular with his grotle and Rhyperior had definitely given him some interesting idea for his training. (AN: Some very interesting ideas from that battle 'evil grin'.)

Training was over now though and he was overly satisfied with the results. He was confident he could definitely give Tobias a match he'd never forget, his team had impressed him with their resolve Charizard & Sceptile in particular pushed themselves to the limits they had seemed to have formed a Rivalry. Well more that Sceptile had at least tried to knock down the orange lizard a few pegs he didn't seem to like the lizards arrogance and constant barbecue of their trainer much to his own amusement even though he didn't personally mind very much as he did in the past, deep down Charizard probably sensed that as well.

Sceptile's special training in particular had yielded some interesting result all-round and had opened his own mind to new ideas for possible special techniques for the rest of his team.

The training also been taxing on himself and Brock with the amount of effort required, Brock had suggested an early night to be refreshed for tomorrow before the battle to rest his mind he had tried to go to sleep himself but couldn't get relaxed his mind still on Tobias leading to his current location.

Brock had successfully gone to sleep as soon as he hit the bed once again murmuring about officer Jenny in his sleep which seemed to be his thing as of late probably the only time he doesn't get poison jabbed by Croagunk.

Dawn, Zoey and there new pack mule Barry had also gone to bed early they were pretty exhausted from their shopping Spree and he'd believe that especially from a particular experience he and Brock had years ago, they had been dragged along to that 'Princess Festival' by Misty that was hell on earth.

Hoenn with May was even worse with her father basically allowing free use of his money for his princess and son's travels within reason off course that why the pack deal he had with Brock is still in effect to this day.

Do not mention anything about half price bargains ever! all the girls they've travelled with just seemed to try and sniff out bargains if they are given the time, which I offcourse tried to Limit by going to the gym or Pokémon centre straight away when arriving in town.

Right now none of that mattered tomorrow was the final Hurdle to get to his first league final, well second but the Orange league was different and this one would be even more satisfying if he could topple his final two opponents and win his first official league.

"Fireworks begin tomorrow, although I wouldn't mind this view to toast my victory." Ash said to himself feeling at piece it didn't matter who his opponent was tomorrow he would give it his all and come on top. He had done the best he could in the time available with Pokémon he had now he just had to show what he could do.

"They are beautiful aren't they!" said a mystery voice approaching shocking Ash out of his daydreaming.

Without his hat it was easy for him to glance behind him angling his head.

"Hello there Ash I see you enjoying a bit of stargazing!" said the person who he now identified as Cynthia who came and sat down next to him gazing at the sky.

"You don't normally find many places outsides of the mountain area where you can see the sky so clear lily of the valley is one of those lucky places in the world where one can see the stars unobstructed being an island." Cynthia said more to herself then to Ash.

"Yeah I've always enjoyed watching the stars since I was a little kid pallet town skies just seemed to always be clear." Ash said.

"Sounds like a place id want to go visit sometime." she said looking interested.

"I'll show you around sometime if I'm home you'll just love it Professor Oak's lab is always a sight to see along with a great view of the ocean and all the water Pokémon." Ash said, in pride of his hometown.

Smiling down at Ash her presence seemed to glow under moon making Ash blush and look away from her earning a giggle from Cynthia. "Perhaps I'll take you up on that offer sometime."

"Sure!" Ash blurted out, feeling uncomfortable looking at Cynthia at the moment.

'Godammit where's my spine when you need it!' Ash raged internally.

"I must say Ash I've been impressed with performance so far In the league you and Paul have become a lot Stronger since we last met. Your battle with him was definitely one to remember." Cynthia said snapping Ash out of his thoughts.

"Thanks" Ash said quietly. 'This is the sinnoh champion man up! And stop acting like a nervous wreck!'.

"It looked like Paul had learned to Care for his Pokémon and it reflected in the battle." Cynthia glanced at Ash. "Looks like you learned something valuable as well from the look on your face."

"Yes I did learn from that battle and you'll see what tomorrow." Yes tomorrow's battle will paint a clearer picture then words.

"Well then I look forward to it, Tobias is definitely a powerful adversary from what Ive seen of his matches, It still baffles me, the elite four and the gym leaders he's battled where he got Darkrai from." Cynthia said with a slight frown.

Ash raised an eye at that. "Elite Four there here as well?"

Cynthia blinked at Ash in bewilderment "Why of course Ash, me and my fellow champions and other elite 4 like to attend our home leagues to get a look at the next generation of Pokémon trainers that crop up and see who look out for in the future."

"I see!" sweat trickling down the back of his head. 'I am an idiot! I am an idiot! pull yourself together Ketchum and stop asking stupid questions!'

" You yourself had been earmarked quite early, your Johto league performance definitely caught Lance's eye he couldn't stop raving about you along with Bruno, Agatha & Drake, other gym leaders from other regions including here as well & Mr Goodshow himself. My own elite four have been talking about you as well of late you really do leave lasting impressions don't you."

Ash blushed that was a lot of praise have so many elite trainers see your true potential.

"Wow didn't think I was that popular?" Ash said with a laugh sitting up.

"As I said you leave a good impression when you do that you're definitely remembered, everyone was impressed with your battles so far and look forward to seeing what you can do against Darkrai and whatever else Tobias has in store."

"Wow pressure having all these powerful trainers expecting a good show from yours truly." Ash said jokingly.

Cynthia giggled. " Yes mr Ketchum we want to be entertained by mr unorthodox himself I can't seem get a complete read on you with that big bag of tricks of yours."

"Well then know that my bag just got even bigger so watch out I'll be taking your title very soon ms Cynthia." Ash said playfully getting closer confidence talking to her on the rise.

"Oh very scary, I best start training a lot harder with someone like you on my tail mr Ketchum." Cynthia teased.

The two looked at one another getting lost in each other eye's, they slowly closed the gap between one another… "PIKA!"

The Pair bolted apart from the sudden interruption blushing, a certain Mouse had noticed his Master/Friend had gone missing so had come looking for him very poor timing on it's part.

'Did we almost!' both thought still blushing while Pikachu look on in confusion not sure what he had interrupted.

"Anyway just do your best Ash that's all we expect from you do that and you can be proud of yourself no matter what happens tomorrow." Cynthia muttered who quickly got up and made a hasty retreat away from the lake.

"Yeah sure." Ash muttered more to himself still out of it his thoughts were still on the prevented kiss watching her walk away.

"Wait Cynthia!" Ash shouted to her quickly disappearing back he didn't want to leave this meeting having awkwardness around them he much enjoyed there talk.

Cynthia stopped and turned to Ash looking nervous. "Yes!"

"Thank you for the talk you don't realise how much I needed that." Ash said quietly.

Cynthia gained a small smile at that. "You're Welcome I'm rooting you Good luck."

"Wow a beautiful girl cheering for me, I better I do my best then." Ash said regaining the confidence he had previously talking to her earning a small laugh from Cynthia who smiled at Ash and turned to go back to her hotel he guessed but not before having one final jab at her.

"I forgot to ask where's the Ice cream you seem to always have with you like Crasher Wake with his mask or a Hypno its ring?" Ash Joked.

Cynthia blushed "Shut up you!" she yelled and walked away the smile on her face returning.

'Thanks Ash you always seem to know what to say to ease the tension, I truly wish you luck in your match.' Cynthia Thought as she left the lakeside for her hotel to rest for the following day.

'Its fun teasing her perhaps I should do it more in the future.' Smirking as Cynthia left quickly forgetting what had caused the minor Ddrama.

Getting up, Ash leaned down to allow Pikachu onto his shoulder.

"I best go to Sleep; we got a Big Day Tomorrow." Patting the Mouse on the head Ash they left behind the beautiful Scene behind for a well earn rest for one of the biggest battles he'd face.

**(10:10am Next Day)**

It was a very rushed morning for Ash & co but they felt very refreshed after the goodnight sleep.

They had slept in till 9am after an exhausting day yesterday and probably would have slept even longer if it wasn't for an early morning courtesy of our neighbourhood electric mouse although Piplup did not appreciate it.

They were lucky Ash's battle would not begin till 11am although Ash was required to be there half an hour early Brock and Dawn would also need to find seating as well.

Brock whipped up a quick breakfast for them of scrambled eggs and toast which was quickly eaten and left to dress, they were now waiting on Dawn who seemed to have been held up getting ready.

Ash groaned. "Come on Dawn it's been 15 minutes already how long can it take someone to get dressed." Pikachu's arms were folded tapping his foot in impatience next to him.

"Pika!"

"Just hang on I'm almost done, stupid Hair why won't you stay still!" Dawn whined annoyed at her morning frizzy hair which never seemed to give her a break.

Ash groaned in annoyance getting louder with his displeasure. "Common Dawn I've only got twenty minutes to get there plus we got to meet up with Barry so you guys can find seats in the stadium, I wish they made seating behind the trainer sides like in kanto and johto it would be so much easier."

"Each region setup is different we can't complain about it, but it is something they could look into for trainers competing or a personal box in the stands for trainers support during matches." Brock Said it was worth looking into he'd pass that message along to Mr Goodshow if they run into him.

"Im ready!" Said Dawn who exited there apartment room carrying Piplup in her arms, allowing for Brock who had the key's to lock the door.

The Trio walked down the corridor and down a set of stairs entering the Main area for healing in the Pokémon centre there was no other trainers around other than Nurse Joy probably having gone to get a seat in the stadium for todays battles.

"Hello Ash, Brock, Dawn good morning!" said Nurse Joy.

"Hey Nurse Joy, are my Pokémon ready for today's battle?" Ash asked approaching the service desk with Brock and Dawn behind him.

"Yes there all in tiptop shape." Nurse handed over the tray containing five of Ash's poke balls.

"Thank's Nurse Joy!" Ash said with a smile in gratitude. When Ash picked up the tray Brock was quick to step in front of Ash once again holding Nurse Joy's hands.

"Good morning Nurse Joy, thank you for looking after my friends pokémon now that there all better I'll be needing a thorough check up from head to toe." Passion radiating from Brock's eyes before his other new best friend pain came along via rear end.

"Why?" Squeaked Brock as Croagunk dragged him out of the Pokémon Ccentre with Dawn following just shaking her head at typical Brock.

Nurse Joy had a blush on her face she still wasn't used to someone being so forward with her but she didn't take it the wrong way she had heard all about Brock from her family he was….very passionate yes that's the right word.

"Anyway Ash good luck in todays battle do your best!" said Nurse Joy.

"Thanks I appreciate it, see you later." Ash waved at Nurse Joy while exiting the Pokémon centre coming across the still downed Brock with Dawn and now Barry who seemed to have found them poking him.

Barry was quick to notice his presence. "Ash what took you so long you have only fifteen minutes to get to the stadium, I ought to fine you for making me wait for you as well, Pay up in 10..9…8!" Hand held out waiting for cash, Ash personally though he was just looking for an excuse to get compensation for the last few days of torture but that was his own fault for not seeing between the lines in the first place.

"Why can't my friends be normal?" Ash questioned rubbing his head everyone he knew seem to have some quirk about them.

"What are you talking about Ashy- boy? We're as normal as you are mister chosen one!" Interrupted a voice Ash hadn't heard in a while.

'Oh great he's here just what I need.' "Hey Gary" Ash said dully he didn't feel like being teased despite them being mostly in jest.

"Gary what you doing here?" question Brock who had miraculously recovered much to Barry's shock.

"Hey Brock, heard Ashy- boy actually got past the top 8 for once, I didn't believe it so I decided to take a break from my research I came to see you guys in person." Gary shrugged at them earning a tick mark from Ash.

"Ha-ha very funny you're a real comedian." Ash said sarcastically his left eye twitching yep Gary was just what he needed right now.

"Who is this guy?" Questioned Barry confused on who this new person was.

"Barry this is Gary Oak grandson of Professor Oak." Dawn Introduced holding Gary's hand earning a slight blush from Gary.

Barry blinked. "Professor Oaks grandson, wow! oh my gosh I didn't think I'd meet a celebrity." Barry turned to Ash frustration clear on his face. "Ash why didn't you tell me you knew Professor Oak & his grandson."

Ash didn't appreciate the screaming with the blank stare he was giving Barry who had gone on a rant 'because this is the Kind of reaction id expect from someone as Hyper as you, I don't need another headache.'

"Must have slipped my mind, listen I grew up with the guy and were friends that's all you need to know."

Wanting to end conversation and get a move on Ash started walking towards Stadium leaving his friends behind, following the large crowd of people going to the same destination.

"What's with Ash?" Gary questioned looking at Ash's quickly disappearing back.

"He's probably nervous this is the furthest he's ever gone in a league competition that and his opponent isn't helping." Brock answered who started following Ash with the rest following not wanting to lose sight of Ash in this large crowd.

"You mean the guy with the Darkrai I figured as much, that's other reason we've come a chance to see a legendary in action is rare." Said Gary brow furrowed.

"We?" asked everyone.

Gary smirked. "Yeah Grandpa just couldn't let an opportunity like this go so he's here as well and brought Mrs Ketchum and Misty who was visiting should be a nice surprise."

"All three of them are here wow! that's a surprise the last time they all watched Ash in competition in person was at the Johto league." Brock said in surprise.

"Yeah as I said grandpa pretty much had a clear schedule and Mrs Ketchum was more than willing to come watch her Son in action. Misty was just there at the time visiting, so naturally she tagged along although she apparently gave her sisters a stern talking to before coming, talk about heated." Said Gary he knew Misty had a temper from the times they'd talked but it seemed to raise a whole new level when her Sisters were involved.

"Yean that sounds like Misty all right." Brock joked.

"Oh really?" said new feminine voice which carried a tone of anger causing both Gary and Brock to freeze while Dawn, Piplup & Barry looked at the pair in confusion.

'Oh Shit!' glancing behind them seeing said orange haired girl in her all yellow outfit but this time equipped with her trusty mallet.

"Hey Misty!" both guys said with sweat dropping out of the back of head knowing they were in deep shit.

"Hello boy's it been a while it's nice to see you again but I couldn't help overhear some of your current talk, were you insinuating I had an anger problem." Misty said deceptively calm her stroking her mallet like a precious Item, it wasn't easing the fear Brock and Gary were currently feeling.

Despite not knowing the person Barry approached Misty to try and ease the tension, big mistake.

"Lady I think you should calm down your overreact…..." Mallet met head leading to Barry meeting his new friend the ground.

"Im waiting." said Misty with the same tone completely ignoring the twitching body beneath her.

"I see you haven't Changed Misty!" said an approaching Ash with his Mother and Professor Oak in Toe who he had found in line waiting to enter the stadium.

This earned a twitching eye from Misty. "What was that Ketchum?"

"I mean It's nice to see you Misty." Bringing her into a hug showing it was good to see her again and to hopefully ease the tension.

Returning the Hug ."That's better."

Both Brock and Gary sighed in relief knowing they had been spared for now.

"Hello everyone!" greeted Delia being her typical open self.

"Hello there!" Professor Oak also greeted.

"Hi Mrs Ketchum, Professor Oak it's been a long time!" Brock greeted in turn and introduced Dawn and Barry as well.

"Hello my names Dawn it's an honour to meet you both in person." Dawn Bowed.

"Me too!" Barry said seemly stunned staring at the Professor who had a sweat drop while Mrs Ketchum giggled.

Ash rolled his eyes turning to his mother. "You know I would have appreciated being properly informed that you were coming to watch me battle, would have come to see you."

"Well we wanted to surprise you honey, it been long time since I watched my baby Live I brought my camera as well to take lots of pictures." Delia said brightly.

"Mum!" Ash squeaked out already embarrassed by his Mother and it had only been five minutes, perhaps he should have blabbed to Johanna he didn't appreciate the giggles he was getting from Dawn & co he was a man God Dammit.

" **ASH KETCHUM PAGING TRAINER ASH KETCHUM PLEASE REPORT IMMEDIATLY TO THE NORTHWING FOR CONFIRMATION OF ATTENDANCE!"**

"Well it looks like I got a go wish me luck guys!" putting his game face on Ash was ready to rumble.

"Ash just do your best everyone in pallet town is cheering for you and I'm certain May and Max are as well wherever they are." Said Delia holding her sons shoulders trying to lessen the pressure on him knowing this battle is a big deal.

"Ash after beating Paul you better win or I'll fine you!"

"No need to worry you got this Ash!"

Barry and Dawn showed their own support in there own typical way.

"Yeah Ash show this guy what your made off and get to the finals!" Misty said trying to pump him up, not that he needed it the adrenalin was already going he always felt like this just before he battles strong opponents.

Looking at Brock words didn't need to be said between the pair, Ash was grateful for all the help Brock had given him the last few days he had been run ragged as well the best way Ash could say thank you was by showing it his performance.

"I will thanks you guys." Ash smiled turning away from them but Gary had one final thing to give him.

"Wait I'll think you need this!" throwing something small to Ash who caught it in his left hand revealing the top half of a Poke ball.

"Gary!" Ash said shocked.

Gary smirked at Ash "Figured you need it a little luck, it will be handy especially when your opponents a Darkrai and whatever else this guy's got."

Ash smiled at Gary in return giving him a thumbs up before turning and running to the stadium running past a walking Paul who had come to keep his promise of attendance which Dawn was quick to notice.

"Hey Paul came to watch Ash's match." Dawn ran up to Paul who just stared at her.

"Yes, I made a promise and I like to keep them when I can." Paul said.

"Well if it isn't Paul it's been a while since I last saw you." Gary smirked he had noticed a slight change the air around the kid he seemed a bit more approachable and I do mean slightly.

"And I believe your Gary Oak if I remember correctly?" Paul questioned in a clipped tone glancing at the new arrival that was followed by a group of strangers.

"Well young Man I believe your name is Paul correct you showed a very impressive performance against our Ash you should be proud of yourself." Professor Oak said.

Paul grunted still a bit bitter on the loss but accepting of the praise from the accomplished professor.

"Thank you."

Delia was quick to greet the newcomer. "Hello I'm Ash's mother Delia it's nice to meet another friend of my Ash."

"I'm Paul nice to meet you mam." You can't say Paul wasn't polite to his elders.

"While it's great to see Paul again, we have to get moving if there's going to be any seats left because look the crowds really thinned out a lot." It was true before there had been a massive crowd of people bunched together ahead of them pushing their way through into the stadium now seemed to be small queue remaining that never was a good sign.

"He's right there won't be many seats left let alone together let's go." Said Brock.

"Why if it isn't my old friends Brock and Misty, oh and Professor Oak long time no see I didn't know you were attending I would have saved you a seat Old friend." Said a new voice who sounded quite old.

The group turning to face the new voice saw it was an old man with a puffy white beard in green shorts, a red zipped up jacket and a hat which was flipped backwards who Misty and Brock recognised as Mr Goodshow president of the Pokémon league.

The professor recognising his old friend was quick to shake the shorter man's hand.

"It has indeed been a long Time Charles, I appreciate the offer but you know how I do enjoy being the crowd the atmosphere really reminds me of my younger days."

Mr Goodshow laughed. "Indeed you were quite the trainer yourself your rivalry with Agatha was legendary."

Professor Oak grimaced at that there relationship was still a bit of a saw spot.

"Anyway you might have to take me up on that offer Samuel the stadium just sold out." Mr Goodshow added.

"What!" yelled everyone.

Mr Goodshow nodded. "Yes indeed seems like a lot of people jumped the gun early to get a seat, people are sitting in the Isle as well since we've exceeded capacity so why don't you all join me in my private box I don't mind and I'm sure neither will the other elites and I do owe Ash a few favours anyway for saving the Torch on multiple occasions, there's plenty of room."

Everyone brightened up at that and started following Mr Goodshow who started chatting with his old friend, Paul was reluctant to join them he wanted to watch the match alone at the top of the stands but Dawn was quick to drag him along earning a slight glare from Gary.

The group entered though a special side entrance which was guarded by two security guards who let them pass upon Mr Good shows approval.

They were met with a long corridor at the end was a set of stairs and an elevator, it was an easy choice squeezing into the elevator they went up to the top floor when the door opened they were presented with a door which had the words VIP titled in the centre which Mr Goodshow opened.

The group was in awe, the room itself was quite large with three large couches facing a large viewing window of the battlefield giving a perfect view there were also cushions on the ground as well, there was also a large tv slightly above the window currently showing the battlefield itself with a reporter talking on screen.

There was also a bar at the back with a couple of stools and beverages available which was currently being occupied by the pair of Flint who was animatedly talking to a calm Volkner although they had noticed the entrance of Mr Goodshow and his entourage.

"Hey Mr Goodshow I see you brought some guests, it's about time gets boring talking to same people all the time." Flint said jokingly.

Volkner rolled his eyes of course the first thing he does meeting new people try and crack a Joke he had not matured at all since they first met.

Mr Goodshow nodded at them in greeting. "Hello Flint, Volkner nice to see you, do you know where the others are?"

Flint scratched his Head "Well Aaron and Lucien went for a walk while Bertha actually went with Cynthia to pick up a treat before the First match."

" I dragged Volkner's here he was bored anyway with no battles these days, that and he was interested in watching Ash's spark in his own words. Candice is also here she went somewhere to look for someone I think, but I can't ever tell with that Chick with someone as peppy as her."

"There nothing wrong being an active young woman!" Bertha interrupted entering the room with Cynthia both carrying Ice creams but Cynthia had a double scoop of her favourite vanilla busy licking away ignoring all around her. "While I remember in my younger day's I use to go mountain climbing when not training my Pokémon I still remember the fresh mountain Air tickling across my back as I climbed."

"Well I much prefer to just kick back and relax!" Flint casually answered slouched into his stool as if proving his point.

"Ow!" "Don't be cheeky everyone has their preferences." Bertha lectured Flint who was rubbing the lump on his head earning a chuckle from Volkner and Mr Goodshow although Cynthia still remained in her own World.

'This is the elite of the Pokémon league?' Paul thought in disbelief.

'This is my kind of people!' Gary grinned he'd definitely get along well with Flint in his opinion although he'd try to avoid Bertha wrath.

"Can't keep out of trouble can you Flint." Lucien commented as he walked into the Room with his colleague Aaron Following behind who waved in greeting.

Flint pouted. "Hey I just stated my own opinion of a goodtime, it's just a difference of opinion beside why would I change my loving personality."

"You should cool it down a bit then there's a time and place where you show your kiai!" Candice stated the newly arrived with another guest trailing behind. "Hope you don't mind Mr Goodshow But I brought along my student and childhood Friend here, her names Zoey."

Mr Goodshow Chuckled "It's no problem at all my dear, more the merrier I always say." It was always good having lots of company made for interesting conversations.

The red haired bowed in greeting. "It's Nice to meet you Sir."

Dawn was quick to approach her friend. "Hey Zoey, how you doing?"

"I'm Ok, still worn out to be honest who knew shopping could take it out you so much." Zoey scratched the back of her head in Embarrassment, Dawn's enthusiasm really influenced her the last few days since she normally wasn't a big shopper.

"What's this about shopping." Queried Candice knowing Zoey was a bit of a tomboy and wasn't really into shopping.

"Oh nothing really just a few new pieces of clothing really it's going to be winter soon figured best be prepared in advance." She lied calmly taking advantage in the change of season on the horizon but she knew she was only stalling, one more slip and she was busted If Candice face said anything not looking like she fully believed her Lie.

She'd have to thank Brock later for his normal shenanigans.

"Candice my ice queen it's been so long since we last met, I've brought you an Ice Cream to commemorate this reunion." Brock interrupted on his knees grasping a hold of both of Candice's Hands in his left hand while presenting a vanilla ice cream in his right Hand.

Sweat drops went around the Room including Candice herself who had to give points to Brock for his enthusiasm, it was typical Brock never giving up although Zoey was definitely grateful for the interruption although she did wonder where the ice cream came from along with every one else.

Before Brock could continue trying to woo the ice maiden, he felt a tap on his shoulder breaking him out of his trance glancing behind him Cynthia's presence filled his view but not the typical one; she currently had a weird Aura surrounding her and her fringe covering her eyes.

Sensing danger Piplup quickly retreated to its poke ball, he had enough trouble with that stupid Gible he didn't want to be someone else target.

"Hey Cynthia can I help you." Brock asked still holding Candice's hand who seemed shrink into her clothes like a turtle from just looking at Cynthia.

Raising her eyes to Brocks view chaos ensued.

**10 Minutes Later**

Stunned silence filled the room no one said anything even the peppy Candice had nothing to say merely staring at a very happy Cynthia with everyone else who continued licking her returned Ice cream like nothing happened.

Brock well….. he was in pain that was all that could be said but he was officially scared of Cynthia and swore to not to try and woo her ever he'd take Croagunks Poison Jabs any day.

" **Pokémon fans I suggest you get to your seat he because the first semi final of the Sinnoh league tournament will begin shortly."** spoke the commentator over the stadium speakers leading to cheering over the entire stadium.

Perfect timing from the commentator and the tension eased in the VIP Box seeing the battle about to begin everyone settled into there seats. Mr Goodshow, Professor Oak & Delia Shared one Couch. Aaron, Lucien, Bertha and Cynthia another while , Candice, Zoey, Dawn and Misty occupied the Final Couch. While Flint, Volkner, Brock, Paul and Barry each took a cushion getting comfortable.

"Here we go Ash this is what you've been training for, beat this guy!" Cheered Dawn.

"Not much is known about Tobias but he has pretty much dominated this entire tournament with just his Darkrai." Brock Said.

"Yeah That Darkrai's power is through the roof, I've never lost so fast in a battle before and that was just with his Darkrai." Candice said sharing her own experience with him.

Volkner also added his own two cents. "He's one of the reasons I lost interest in battling, It's not that I lost it just watching him battle me felt like he was sucking the life out of me. He was emotionless there was no spark, no excitement to his battling it was like he was just going through the motions.

"Why didn't say anything about this Man." Flint said in surprise while Volkner said nothing.

"Sounds like a real jerk to me." Misty snidely commented Arms folded.

"Peoples pasts shape a Person bad experiences can influence ones social behaviour, that's not to say he's a bad person though." Cynthia commented expressing her own opinion, back to normal no dark Aura present.

"Either way Ashy-Boy has his work cut out for him no one's got beyond Darkrai in his arsenal meaning the rest of his team is unknown to everyone which is already a big disadvantage for Ash." Gary said being serious for once.

"Well from what I've seen from Tobias battles he seems to prefer the use of long range moves in dark pulse and ice beam to manoeuvre his opponents into a position for a quick finish using the combination of dark Void and dream Eater to Ffinish battles. Quite a deadly combination putting your opponent to sleep and dealing a lot of damage with the added bonus of healing any damage Darkrai might have received in the process. "Lucien Said to the other elites agreements.

"Oh Man how's Ash going to get around that!" Barry said pulling his hair in frustration.

"No need to Worry Ash has been working his butt off like crazy the last few days with Brock I'm sure between the pair of them they've come up with something to counter that." Dawn said confidently.

Brock said nothing eyes focused on the battlefield.

"Well I'm sure, my Ash will do his best that's all I can ask plus there will be some great pictures." Mrs Ketchum Said pulling out her camera much to the amusement of the others present excluding Paul who was to focused in his own thoughts.

'Let's see what you can do Ash, don't disappoint me.'

" **The Sinnoh league tournament at the Lily of the Valley Island Is reaching its final stages welcome Ladies and Gentleman welcome to the semi final stage introducing today's first semi final competitors, Tobias and Ash!"** The commentator screamed through the stadium speakers much to the delight of the crowd who voiced their own approval.

Both trainer boxes rose up from underground revealing both Trainers both with serious expressions on their faces, Ash was completely focused on Tobias blocking out the crowd which came easier with each league competition he faced strangely enough he didn't feel the nerves he had previously before entering the arena had all but disappeared he never felt nervous just before he battled it was like a release valve for the all the tension he previously felt battling just felt natural like a reflex.

Both Trainers pictures appeared on the big screen with six slots for each trainer, an icon showing choice of four battlefields Water, Grass, Rock or Ice was in the right corner and currently flashing between each choice.

" **Now The computer will select the choice of battlefield and it is…a GRASS BATTLEFIELD!"** shouted the commentator.

The battlefield split down the middle opening up revealing a large grass field which raised itself into position it had a few small inclines making the surface completely flat for the trainers.

"A grass field, that will work in Ash's favour." Brock commented more to himself but everyone heard him.

A referee stepped up on a podium on the side and explained the general rules. "This will be a 6 on 6 Pokémon battle with each trainer allowed substitutions the battle will end when all Pokémon on one trainer side is unable to Battle."

" **So folk's I hope you're ready for a super-heated 6 on 6 Full battle, each trainer will now choose their First Pokémon what will it be?"**

Tobias smirked silently throwing his Poke ball across the field which opened to reveal as expected the dreaded Darkrai.

"Darkrai another battle with a legendary this will be intense but I know I can handle it." Ash said to himself.

Pikachu nodded in agreement.

" **And Tobias's first Pokémon is his powerful Darkrai what will Ash respond with?"**

**(VIP BOX)**

"So it is his Darkrai as expected!" Brock said firm concentration on Ash.

"It sure looks powerful." Dawn said pulling out her Pokedex.

" **Darkrai the Pitch Black Pokémon, Darkrai can cause People and Pokémon to have Nightmares." said Dexter.**

Misty shivered at that "Sound like something of a real Terror."

"This is the first time I've seen a Darkrai in person so I really can't give much information on one, from what I've seen on tv though it's clear it's powerful but it's manoeuvrability hasn't truly been tested, it's clear it will be a challenge for Ash question is what will he use to counter it." The wise professor said adding his own view.

**(Battlefield)**

'I need to strike hard and fast to keep the pressure on Darkrai.' Ash Thought pulling out his first poke ball.

"Ok Sceptile I Choose you!" releasing the large geeko Pokémon putting it's twig in it's Mouth having a stare down with its opponent without fear, it had experience dealing with this kind of opponent in the past so it's aura didn't overwhelm the grass type.

**(VIP BOX)**

"So he went with a Sceptile, I see probably banking on its speed and power to give him the upper hand a text book choice." Cynthia commented.

"Is Cynthia right Brock, on why Ashy- boy went with Sceptile." Gary asked Ash's right hand Man.

Brock gave a slight nod but not verbally saying more.

'Cynthia is mostly correct it's speed and power is definitely key for Ash, but off course Ash also knows it won't be enough while not perfected Ash is definitely banking Sceptile new special move to give it the edge.' Brocks eyes glinting earning and inquisitive stare from Cynthia.

'Ash definitely has something else up his sleeve." Cynthia thought.

"Go Sceptile!" Dawn & Candice yelled enthusiastically throwing in their own support.

**(Battlefield)**

"Alright Sceptile keep a close eye on Darkrai when its attacks, don't let its image fool you it's deceptively quick."

"Scep-Tile!".

Tobias Smirked "Let's Start with ice beam!" appearing quickly in its left hand It fired.

"Sceptile Dodge it, then quick attack!" the reptile side stepped the Beam with ease then charged at high speed at Darkrai.

"Darkrai dark void!" Darkrai created a dark sphere between its palms and threw it at the rapidly approaching Sceptile.

"Alright Use agility into aerial ace to dodge!" Sceptile disappeared in Mid-sprint letting the Dark Void to fly by safely and reappeared directly in front of Darkrai accelerating at high speed, Sceptile ploughed into Darkrai forcing the Reaper like Pokémon to slam in the opposite wall unable to stop itself.

" **Amazing Show of Speed from Sceptile dodging on the run turning defence into offence, Darkrai is reeling from that devastating contact!"**

"Aerial ace! didn't know a Sceptile could learn a flying type move being a grass type?" Dawn said in wonder. You learn something new every day.

"Possibly because of it's build allows it to use such a high speed move despite not being able to fly, I've seen other cases of this as well." Answer Brock who remembered his time during the kanto battle frontier where Dome Ace Tucker's Arcanine was also able to use said move.

"Still impressive use of said move using the quick attack to speed up the Aerial ace was a nice combination." Cynthia complemented.

Darkrai was slow to get up while generally not a very effective move against a dark type the angle and extra speed from the momentum of run had added a lot more force than a normal aerial ace leaving a very sore Darkrai who hovered once more low to the ground groaning a bit in pain.

"Very clever use of aerial ace, it has been a while since Darkrai has taken such damage!" Tobias was quick to complement, this competition had been a cakewalk for him and Darkrai his opponents didn't put up much of a fight it was nice to finally see an opponent actually give him a challenge.

"There's more where that came from!" Ash exclaimed pumped up from having first blood, Sceptile was quite pleased as well.

"I can tell that move will be annoying so Darkrai use disable!" Tobias ordered.

" **A new move from Darkrai stopping Ash in his Tracks!"**

"Disable but how!" Ash exclaimed shocked.

Tobias Smirked at Ash "Don't assume just because I only used the four moves so far in this league, that's all that Darkrai is capable all off." Ash growled.

"That's bad for Ash now he can't use aerial ace at all for a while, he'll have to change it up!" analysed Brock he had not been a hundred percent sure if dark void, dream eater, ice Beam and dark pulse were all it knew but this clarified it looks like Tobias had been holding back more than originally thought.

Not wanting to get caught off guard again Ash decided it was best to keep his distance for now.

"Sceptile, Use bullet seed!" Opening its mouth it sprayed multiple seeds at Darkrai who merely sidestepped it. Sceptile turned its head to follow it making Darkrai swerve around the arena to get out of it range while slowly closing in on Sceptile.

Tobias was quick to respond to the threat. "Use ice beam to freeze those seeds!"

The beam quickly froze every seed on its way to Sceptile who broke off the move not wanting to freeze it mouth shut, And move to its left to dodge.

"Now double team!" This caught Ash off guard multiple copies of Darkrai surrounded Sceptile confusing the reptile on which one was the real one.

Ash grabbed the railing in tension. "Shit which ones the real one!"

"Now Icebeam!" all copies Formed Ice beams firing together.

"Jump straight up!" Ash screamed, using its amazing jumping power it jumped high above the arena.

"Ice beam again, knock it out of the sky!" Tobias Ordered seeing vulnerability of its opponents positioning.

"Shit Sceptile is vulnerable in mid-air and he can't use aerial ace to dodge it either!" Misty said in worry.

"If it's hit that high in the air the fall itself could seriously injure Sceptile!" Professor Oak muttered analysing Sceptile's current situation, Ash better have a trick up his sleeve.

"Ash if you lose this battle, I will fine you!" screamed Barry.

Ash had been ready for the off chance of aerial ace not cutting it ,he had Detect in reserve but in this situation he wasn't sure he could use it mid-air a real risk that left one option one of which he had picked up in Sinnoh during his travels.

"Use the momentum of your fall to spin out of the way of ice beam!" tucking it's arm to its side it spun clockwise picking up speed as it fell adding to its rotation narrowly dodging the ice beam, getting out of its spin Sceptile quickly used Leaf blade to glide to the ground.

"What!" Tobias exclaimed in disbelief.

"All right nice work!" Ash cheered along with Pikachu.

"Pika!"

" **A high speed spin allows Sceptile to avoid a direct Hit from Ice beam, what creative thinking."**

Sceptile felt a chill along it's right arm glancing at it he noticed that it's blade was frozen, narrowing it's eyes Sceptile used bullet seed to break the ice off his grass blade which Ash himself noticed seeing the use of bullet seed.

"So he didn't completely avoid it but it looks like Sceptile didn't take any damage though." Ash said to Himself.

"Will-o-wisp!" catching Ash off guard, Darkrai threw a small ball of compacted flames at Sceptile seeing the danger concentrated his Power and slammed his fists into the ground summoning multiple thorned vines to block the Will-o -Wisp not without taking burns along it vines leaving a horrible burnt smell that left Sceptile uncomfortable.

Ash grinned. "Nice thinking Sceptile, don't be afraid to think on your feet like now ok!" he knew he couldn't always keep up with his Pokémon during the match so it was important that they could make snap decisions if necessary.

"Sceptile must be on a very high level if it can use frenzy plant, my hats off to Ash he's trained it well." Said Volkner impressed with the reptile.

"May not be a fire type, but wouldn't mind a Pokémon like that on my team." Flint added.

"Again the use of an offensive move as a strong defence, I see his Pokemon also think the same." Cynthia commented it was impressive the different implementation of offensive moves it showed Ash definitely was a creative thinker in battle he would definitely give her a challenge in the future with more training.

Brock chuckled. "Well Ash always said a best defence is a strong offence, I suppose he sticking to his strategy in a different way."

Tobias had to hand it to this kid he definitely wasn't an amateur his battle style was quite unique which seemed to be inbreed into his Pokémon as well if his Sceptile was anything to go by.

"Very impressive Ash you're definitely keeping up!"

"Well thanks I try." Ash replied smiling.

"I think it's time to increase Darkrai's strength use nasty plot!" much to Ash's shock another new move.

"Damn!" seeing Darkrai eye's look more menacing and be briefly surrounded with it's dark energy.

"Get Moving, use agility and leaf Blade!" Ash yelled.

Sceptile charged forward trying to take advantage while Darkrai powered up.

"To slow, use faint attack!" Sceptile slashed through Darkrai as it vanished and quickly reappeared behind it.

"It's behind you!" to slow to turn around Sceptile was sent skidding along the ground the ground into the wall close by to Darkrai's own crater at the start of the match causing a dust cloud to form from the trail Sceptile left behind.

The dust cleared to show Sceptile very slowly getting up very shakily from the impact.

" **And Darkrai scores a direct hit with faint attack, it increased strength has sent Sceptile for a loop!"**

"Now dark void!" forming the dark sphere once more in its hand it quickly threw at it shaken opponent making contact making Sceptile drowsy and collapse into a calm sleep mouth open and it's twig hanging out of its mouth.

"No Sceptile wake up!" Ash sweated he was nervous one blow and Sceptile was in terrible trouble.

"Ash got caught off guard, faint attack is move that cannot be dodged which allowed the opening for Darkrai's usual combo this could be the end for Sceptile it put up a good fight." Cynthia said sadly she was rooting for Ash off course but the situation looked dire.

"Now dream eater!" a ghostly image shot out of Darkrai running though Sceptile causing a shudder through the downed Pokemon which laid still.

" **And Sceptile is down is this the end for the powerful grass type."**

The Referee approached the downed Pokémon giving it a close look.

"Sceptile is unable to.." was all the Referee could get out before Sceptile fainted Image just vanished causing shock to everyone in the stadium Ash included.

'No way did he master it by himself.' Ash Thought in shock.

"What's going on?" Tobias demanded to the referee who looked just as confused.

Darkrai himself looked around for his opponent trying to sense where he was hiding he didn't see the Opposing Trainer Return Sceptile meaning it was still in play somewhere Darkrai started glancing around himself.

'He's not to my left, nor to my right, not behind or in front, he's not above either that means.' Darkrai Thought forming a conclusion looking down.

'Below!' As the ground shook and a clawed fist came out of the ground much to Darkrai's shock and gave a strong upper cut sending Darkrai flying out of control as Sceptile emerged completely from underground much to everyone's shock.

"Sceeeeppptile!" Jumping up above Darkrai It amassed a large amount of sharp leaves using leaf storm to send his Air born opponent back to earth hitting the earth with tremendous force causing a minor earthquake from the impact.

Sceptile using it's blades to glide safely Back to earth taking a knee to catch its breath.

"What but how!" Tobias bellowed in disbelief looking at the dust cloud that kept Darkrai from view, he was sure Sceptile had been unconscious so how could it disappear and reappear again still standing.

"What happened Sceptile was out cold and suddenly it's awake again that's not Natural." Barry said wide eyes.

"How did it do that what kind of move was that, how did it get underground did it use dig or something." Asked Gary flabbergasted trying to make sense of it all.

"Whatever happened, it must have been it was when Sceptile was sent into the wall by faint attack, it was briefly covered from view from the dust but im just as confused as the rest of you." Said Paul speaking for the first time he had been very impressed from Ash so far, he was battling with a lot more strategy then their own battle but what he did right now he had no clue what had just happened.

"Well whatever happened, It sure helped sceptile get the edge." Dawn said happily clapping her hands in delight.

"I'm putting this picture on my wall." Delia said happily, her reflex snapping just catching Sceptile uppercutting Darkrai something she was sure her baby would treasure, knowing her son he'd probably asked for an enlarged copy to put in his room.

Who wouldn't want a picture of your Pokémon decking a legendary.

The elites remained silent they had a clue what happened but they need confirmation first, it was impressive though that the Pokémon could execute that technique without order takes a lot of time and trust.

Brock had a small smile on his face it looked like the training had payed off along with learning a new move in the heat of battle.

'Well done, but the battle still just beginning Ash don't let your guard down you might still need your trump card.' Brock thought.

Ash smiled at his Pokémon having realised what Sceptile had done there training had paid off it was a move Ash had tried to teach Sceptile to use instinctively when in danger, It was a move called substitute which allowed a fake copy to take Sceptile place briefly it could only take one hit but it was excellent decoy as shown right now if used correctly.

It was surprising though that Sceptile thought to go underground and hide with what seemed to be dig which he seemed to have just learnt on the fly like Bulbasaur at the lab.

To Ash it looked like Tobias was still stumped not understanding what happened with the look on his face he didn't have to wait long til he was asked by both his opponent and the ref.

"What just happened Ash, Sceptile was unconscious they don't suddenly get sprout with energy like that." Tobias questioned Ash as calmly as he could.

"Are you familiar with the move substitute?" Suddenly Getting a look of understanding from Tobias and the Referee the fear of foul play avoided.

"I see so it used substitute by itself and burrowed underground using dig lulling us into a false sense of security with the downed Clone then catch us off guard with it vanishing and attacking underground brilliant strategy, I must say your Sceptile is one intelligent Pokemon." Tobias complimented looking at the Pokémon in wonder.

Ash smiled in thanks he knew Sceptile was definitely one of his most intelligent Pokémon the professor did tell him he was often seen chatting with his Noctowl when relaxing from training. Other times hanging around with it's fellow hoenn teammates Swellow and Corphish when socialising, probably having learnt Aerial Ace from Swellow when he thought about it he'd have to thank the Pokémon later after the battle.

Tobias smirked "Well played Ash, but do not assume that this particular match is over yet Darkrai isn't done."

Looking across where Darkrai's body had been sent flying, he saw the Pokémon had got up and was hovering once more surrounded with a dark aura.

"We're just getting started, I hope you're ready for round two." said Tobias as Darkrai's dark aura got even stronger with the air vibrating.

Ash grinned himself as Sceptile stood once more getting into a ready stance with its eyes on Darkrai. "I see your Darkrai isn't holding back anymore I guess we better power up as well."

With those words Sceptile formed an energy ball in its hands before quickly swallowing it much to his opponent's surprise. A green aura reminiscent to overgrow formed around Sceptile, his deactivated leaf blades lengthened and his eye's turned an emerald Green showing power.

"Hope your ready we're just getting started as well!" Ash proclaimed ready to match up to the legendary who swept all his opponents away but they weren't pushovers he would show Tobias that.

**AN: First 10K chapter I thinks it's ok, Grammar could be better. Wouldn't mind some comments on the Battle if it's any good personally I like it but it's just my opinion.**

**I more feel more comfortable writing the battles if I'm being completely honest.**

**I've already decided Tobias Team as well won't say who they are though.**

**Next Chapter: The conclusion of Sceptile vs Darkrai both Pokémon are just getting started and the beginning of the next Battle..**

**Anyway enjoy,** **Later.**

**Lightningblade49**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 Enjoy**

The atmosphere was electric, and the crowd was vocal. It had been a while since they'd had a battle of this intensity grace the Sinnoh league. The presence of a legendary was definitely something see. It actually being challenged for the first time in this competition was a spectacle that can be said no one wanted to miss.

Ash's friends were pleased with his performance so far. He was holding his ground, something no one else had done against Tobias in all his battles.

"Ash is doing well so far. He's holding his ground against Tobias. That substitute definitely helped keep Sceptile in the match but it will only get harder from here I'm afraid," Professor Oak said seeing the powerful dark aura surrounding Darkrai.

"It's pleasing to see the improvement that Ash has shown from his last battle against Paul here. He's definitely come prepared for Tobias. Well as much he one could be; the rest of his team is still unknown to anyone," Cynthia said.

Bertha nodded. she was pleased to see Ash had actually listened to her own advice since they'd last battled, which was to be more observant of his opponent. There were still a few small lapses in concentration but his Sceptile had mostly covered up for them. Certainly better than last time they met. "Yes a definite improvement."

Flint smirked, knowingly looking at Sceptile who had his own green aura surrounding it. "Tricky little customer isn't he? Not easy to match a legendary in power but seems like he's found a way to give his Pokémon a power up. You'd think that's Overgrow, but it isn't. Wonder how long it will last."

"Interesting little technique Ashy -boy has created. He's certainly come up with some useful little maneuvers. I wonder if he has more tricks hidden up his sleeve." Gary said glancing at Brock knowingly with others also giving him a passing glance, him being the one who had spent his time helping Ash.

Brock didn't say anything. He was focused completely on the battle, quite pleased with Ash's performance so far. He hadn't shown all his cards early but just enough to force Tobias to take him seriously, which he did starting to open up on Darkrai's own personal range of unused techniques. He was sure there was more Tobias had up his sleeve, but the more Ash pushed him the more Ash would learn of his opponent which could help later on.

Ash had mainly been trying to engage Darkrai at close range with Sceptile's high speed and attack power since Darkrai hadn't really shown any real close range moves to engage Sceptile with, other than feint attack, which wasn't really for that purpose other than counterattacking if Sceptile got to close. It didn't seem to have been taught to use move instinctively like Sceptile had been with substitute, so that was bonus and something that could be exploited.

'It's clear Darkrai hasn't shown everything yet either so Ash had best keep his guard up, the tables can turn again just as easily,' Brock thought uneasily.

"What is that move anyway? It swallowed an energy ball, right? Didn't his Grotle do that on accident against my dad?" Barry questioned scratching his head in thought.

"We call it power surge, because that's basically what it is. Sceptile's perception, power and physical strength have all gone up. Its defense as well, actually. The aura is sort of like armor but it won't be for a long period though," Brock answered out loud for everyone listening.

Professor Oak looked very interested in Brock's explanation. A move that increases all stats at once was something new. "Interesting concept. You could technically do something of a similar effect for other Pokémon of different types as long as you had a similar move to energy ball."

It certainly was an interesting concept, and something to look into. Perhaps he'd ask Ash to let him observe Sceptile up later on.

"Something compacted, like an aura sphere maybe?" Candice asked.

Professor Oak nodded. "Precisely, this is just in theory though. There are still many questions to be answered. Would they only be effective when used by a Pokémon of the same type as the move used, or will it work on any Pokémon? As I said it's all in theory. I'd need to see results of such an experiment to see if it's possible, unless Ash or Brock have the answers for this through their training?"

"No, unfortunately we didn't really have too much to time to really work out the complete mechanics of power surge," Brock stated. He himself was interested in such results as well; perhaps they'd try with another one of Ash's Pokémon when they returned to Pallet Town.

"Who knows? You people can work it out later. There's a battle going on down below I don't particularly want to miss," Paul said eyes squarely on the action with everyone else following his example.

Ash and Tobias were having a stare down along with their Pokémon, neither making a move although a small smirk was forming on Tobias face as he stared at his opponents Pokémon.

"Interesting. Very interesting. I see you've come with a way to give you're Pokémon a bit of a power up of its own. I thought you'd use a status raising move like sword dance or hone claws to try and counter Darkrai's own strength increase but you've come up with something very different. I wonder why," Tobias said while scrutinizing the opposing Sceptile.

He couldn't understand the point in using such a technique when he could receive a similar effect from already existing moves. Other than the green glow surrounding Sceptile and slightly longer grass blades there wasn't much real difference appearance-wise. There had to be something more to it. He had been caught off-guard enough to realize there always seemed to be purpose in Ash's orders despite how bizarre some of them were.

Honestly, it had been first time he'd seen someone spin out of the way of an opposing move to dodge.

Ash smirked. "You'll find out why while we battle. I only told you about substitute so I wouldn't be accused of cheating; I'm not giving you any more freebies so figure it out yourself," Tobias gritted his teeth at Ash's cheek.

"So the kid gloves come off? Very well then, I'll force your secret out in the open. Darkrai ice beam!" Tobias ordered now annoyed at his opponent's cheek.

The ice beam itself was surprisingly much more compacted and had more of the appearance of a lance or a spear. The change in appearance also came with an increase in speed through the air, which would have caught Sceptile off guard normally but with its speed enhancement from the agility and power surge it dodged just as easily as before.

The beam shot passed him, drilling into the arena wall leaving it sticking out of the wall in the open. It wasn't in the way so it didn't really effective the battlefield at all.

 **"What incredible power! That ice beam is literally sticking out of the wall!"** The commentator said in awe of the spear of ice.

Ash raised an eyebrow looking at the chunk of ice. "You call that an ice beam, more like an ice toothpick." It was slightly worrying though; the spear looked like it could cause a lot more damage than a regular ice beam would. Whether or not these increases had gone to the rest of Darkrai's abilities as well crossed Ash's mind.

Tobias grinned. "Ice spear. I like that name. Perhaps I'll use it from now on. I see your Sceptile's speed has increased even further with that power up; that ice spear was launched at double the speed of Darkrai's' previous ice beams. Its aerodynamic shape would also increase its acceleration as it travels through the air, making it even harder to judge the speed the projectile is coming at, so Sceptile's perception could have also gone up. That might explain the glowing eyes."

Ash had to take his hat off to Tobias; one attack and he was able to judge some of the increases it had received but he had only scratched the surface.

"From your silence I'll assume that I am correct, but surely there's more to it than that, otherwise it would have been pointless to even create this technique. Let's see how you deal with the unexpected. Darkrai charge Sceptile!" Tobias ordered catching Ash & Sceptile off guard as Darkrai soared across the field at high speed for Sceptile.

"What!" "Scep!"

**"This is a surprise, for the first time Darkrai is about to go head to head with Sceptile!"**

Ash didn't get it. Sceptile was clearly faster than his opponent and a close range specialist. It would be able to strike a blow a lot easier than Darkrai could. It seemed more suited to long range. It was kind of like an archer trying to fight a swordsman head to head.

"Alright Sceptile use solar beam, push him back!" Ash ordered.

The seeds on Sceptile's back glowed quickly as if under the effects of sunny day. The energy quickly formed in its mouth and launched into devastating solar beam, twice as large as normal.

"Quick, double team!" Tobias quickly ordered as the solar beam zoomed trough one of the fake images colliding with the wall behind Tobias and taking a chunk off, scaring part of the crowd just above the devastation.

"Now prepare to intercept Sceptile! Leaf blade!" Ash ordered with Sceptile charging to meet Darkrai head on much to Tobias' delight.

"As you charge ominous wind, knock him off balance and use poison jab!" The high speed winds caught Sceptile off guard. While he didn't get knocked off his feet he had to stop and use one of its blades as a shield against the harsh wind. It was having difficulty keeping its eyes open against the winds and could barely see Darkrai ahead who was completely unaffected by its own move as it quickly closed the distance with its right hand glowing purple.

Ash gritted his teeth in disbelief. He had been caught off guard again.

While ominous wind had been a surprise the fact that Darkrai could keep it active while moving and using poison jab at the same time was shocking. The amount of concentration required would be unbelievable, although luckily he had just the move to counter this otherwise Sceptile would have had to try an counter with leaf blade which would have been difficult to accomplish at this point.

"Sceptile detect!"

Squinting its eyes, they glowed briefly as Sceptile just barely dodged each of Darkrai's wild swings of poison jab using both its arms. The winds weren't helping with his movement, but he was just fast enough for detect to work.

"Darkrai now use haze!" Darkrai's eye glowed as a small haze covered both Pokémon while Darkrai kept up its poison Jab and Sceptile continued dodging. Detects effects were lifting and ominous wind was coming to an end, although for some reason Sceptile still felt himself getting slower. It was slowly getting harder to dodge, much to his annoyance, and he was just scraping past Darkrai's latest sloppy blow.

He certainly didn't want to want receive damage from such poor fighting technique.

Having had enough of the barrage Sceptile blocked both poison jabs with both his blades, leaving them at a stalemate. They struggled to overcome the each other with poison slowly seeping down Sceptile's blades; much to the Pokémon's discomfort. While poison wasn't really good for a grass type like himself, the clash gave him a slight breather; Sceptile didn't understand why it suddenly felt weaker though.

"What happened to Sceptile's power surge?" Dawn asked seeing the aura surrounding Sceptile gone.

"Looks like it shares the weakness all other status moves have against haze, it returned Sceptile's raised stats back to normal meaning power surge ended. Very clever of Tobias; the whole head on ploy was to get rid of Sceptile's power up giving Tobias the advantage again with Sceptile's stats back to normal," Cynthia observed.

Brock was frowning. While power surge gave an all-round boost to all a Pokémon's stats and along with a boost in its senses, the equivalent of being in this case in a continued Overgrow state there were a few drawbacks in its use. It only last a limited period of time until wore off, then leaving the Pokémon a little drained.

Overuse of the technique would cause some internal damage to the Pokémon according to Nurse Joy when they were testing the limits while training. They had been lucky it had been minor. According to Nurse Joy Sceptile could only use it once a day for 5 minutes at most anymore and then it would start causing problems.

He and Ash had decided to follow Nurse Joy's advice; it wasn't worth it to put Sceptile at risk using it any more than the one a day, although they were hopeful that maybe in the future that could change. The reptile himself didn't agree with the pair, which was understandable as it gave incredible power, kind of like a steroid but without being actual drugs involved. Still, such an obvious weakness being exposed made him feel like kicking himself. Ash probably felt the same and now they were back to square one. Still, things weren't all lost Ash still had some tricks left. Whether they would be enough though was the question.

Ash gritted his teeth, staring at the struggle. Normally Sceptile would have been able to push Darkrai off, but the sudden wear off from the power surge had caught him off-guard. Another kink in the technique they had to work out, this had hurt his strategy a lot.

Tobias smirked. "Looks like it has the same weakness of every other status changing move. So much for that trump card. Still, I wanted Darkrai in close for two reasons, not just for that."

"What!" Ash said, surprised.

"Flash!" Tobias said smugly as a glint came over Darkrai's uncovered eye.

Ash panicked. "Sceptile quickly! Close your eyes!" A bright flash filled the arena with one screaming Pokémon clutching its eyes in agony being too slow to close them, but by doing so he left himself open for the twin poison jabs to connect.

"SSSCCCCEEPPP!" "Sceptile no!" Ash yelled.

Sceptile was hurled to ground hard still covering its eyes with both hands gritting its teeth on its twig, which surprisingly didn't snap from the pressure. There was also pair of large purple bruises on its green belly where the poison jab had connected.

**"What a devastating combo! Sceptile's been left blind and in agony!"**

"Now use dark void!" Tobias said calmly feeling the climax of the battle approaching.

"Sceptile quickly substitute!" Ash yelled desperately.

Where Sceptile lay there was a brief flash but to the naked eye it looked Sceptile hadn't moved an inch, Tobias narrowed his eyes at the downed form.

"Dream eater but afterward gain altitude quickly just in case it's another fake." Tobias said having a plan in place just in case there was another copy.

An astral image of Darkrai once more went through the downed form of it opponents causing it to shudder again before quickly vanishing, meaning it was another fake. It didn't last as long this time Tobias noted perhaps Sceptile was at its roped end.

**"And Sceptile emerges once more from underground, escaping dark void again with substitute! The battle continues!"**

Misty breathed a sigh of relief. "Substitute came through again."

Barry shook his head "It's still not good Misty. Sceptile is worn out and it's fighting blind. Perhaps it's time for a substitution."

"It's not good either way you look at it. Sceptile was chosen against Darkrai for a reason and now I'm not even sure some of the others would do much better." Brock said shaking his head. It didn't look good.

For how much longer was the question on everyone's minds. Sceptile was now on its haunches taking deep breathes having just come up from using dig. While it hadn't taken much damage physically, other than the feint attack and twin poison jabs, its pride was hurt that he'd allowed them to connect.

Stamina was starting to run low as well with the repeated use of substitute and the frenetic pace of the battle. The aftereffects of power surge were also kicking in and on top of it all; it still hurt to open its eyes meaning he'd be fighting blind for now. 'We need to end this quick!' was all Sceptile could think.

Ash breathed a sigh of relief that they were still in this battle, but Sceptile looked worn. Perhaps it was time for a substitution, but for who?

Snorlax and Glalie were too slow and he wanted to save Charizard for later. Infernape, while quick, he was not as fast as Sceptile and had no real safeguard against dark void. Pikachu was not much slower than Sceptile but didn't have a safe guard either, but was probably the best option at this point with its thunder armour.

Who knows, maybe dark void would just bounce off its shiny coat. Don't think it would help Pikachu's ego though.

Ash already had enough of the pissing contest going on between a pair of his senior Pokémon in Charizard and Sceptile. He didn't need the leader of his team added to the mix, whose example would lead everyone else after them.

Not that it mattered. From what he'd seen the odds of Tobias himself actually changing were remote, but anything would be possible at this point. Sceptile was still blind at the moment which was a big problem. As Ash mulled over his choices, Tobias made it for him.

"Darkrai ice spear!" Despite being blind at the moment, Sceptile could still hear the incoming Ice spear, quickly jumping to its right as far as it could to get out of the way, and then hearing it zoom past and crash against the wall.

"So you can still hear the ice spear as it travels through the air. Well then, what about against multiple coming from every direction? Darkrai use double team and ice spear again!" Tobias ordered.

"Shit! Sceptile's cornered!" Barry yelled much to the other's dismay at seeing he was right.

Brock bit his lip. 'How will you get out of this one Ash? I can only really see one way, but it might not work effectively without power surge.'

Darkrai made multiple copies of itself to surround the unmoving Sceptile from all sides, each forming a spear which was a lot smaller than normal, as hearing them coming from all directions would make it difficult for Sceptile to judge the real from the fake.

Seeing no real way to avoid them, he powered up agility to try and get out of their way when they got close. Maybe he'd get lucky.

Ash saw that they were in a bind with no real way out. Detect wouldn't work here. Aerial ace was still disabled and that left no real defensive option. He could use an attack to defend but Sceptile didn't have one that could defend from all directions. It looked like Sceptile had the same thought seeing the use of agility.

'Agility?' Ash pondered.

'Wait, that could be it! But it might not work as well without power surge to help with the control and accuracy, plus Sceptile's condition isn't that great either. But then again accuracy doesn't matter at this point; the ice spears are coming from all directions with only one being the real one. As long as Sceptile can get rid of the copies he can still hear the real one properly and dodge. He wouldn't have to open his eyes that way. Like we have much choice though, one more substitute and I don't think he would be able to move at that point.' Ash thought.

"Sceptile I know you can't control it properly in this state but we don't have much choice, use quick sword, but only for five seconds ok? Anymore and it will be too much stress on your arm!"

Sceptile's eyes opened in surprise at the order. He had forgotten about his trump card, which was understandable since it was a power surge use only technique at this point.

Concentrating carefully he channelled the already powered up agility energy into the receptor of his right arm, small veins popping out as the energy poured into limb. Once Sceptile had poured everything he had into his right arm it had a small green aura surrounding it and flowing along its blade.

Hearing the swift approach of the ice spears Sceptile immediately started slashing the air as fast as it could. Its right arm was literally vibrating as it slashed. Soon it couldn't even be seen, the slashes making its arm a blur and multiple nigh invisible wind blades cutting through the air in all directions with no real control on their location; some went upwards to the sky or at Sceptile's feet, tearing up the earth.

The incoming ice spears were no match for the invisible wall of wind dicing them into tiny shards before they could even make contact with Sceptile. After only five seconds the arena was in shambles. Lots of scars covered the grass field with some gashes along the surrounding walls.

Ash was lucky that psychic Pokémon built a barrier to protect the crowd and trainer boxes from stray moves being thrown; otherwise he wouldn't have considered using quick sword at all. It was definitely a scary prospect if Tobias' face said anything along with most of the crowds.

**(A/N: Quicksword – Irene from Claymore basically, if you want to see what it really looks like)**

Commentator was speechless too, it seemed.

The real Darkrai had been able to avoid all slashes that had come it way, but it had been lucky its location had the fewest wind blades. Its clones hadn't been as lucky, but it probably didn't matter.

He was more concerned about Sceptile, who despite the short usage was clutching its arm in pain, small veins pulsing visibly to the naked eye. Sceptile was using synthesis to try and heal some of the damage while Tobias was distracted. While it was a devastating technique, there were drawbacks.

Overuse damages the nerves in his arm, and they had determined while training that a max twenty second of controlled usage at this point would be doable, but only during power surge it seemed to limit the damage Sceptile would sustain in addition to the better control.

**VIP Box**

"What on earth was that!?" Barry screamed clutching at his head in disbelief. He didn't know what to describe what he just saw; the battlefield was close to destroyed.

"I've never seen so much damage so quickly from a grass type!" Bertha said, stunned.

Flint and Volkner were both gobsmacked and unable to say anything. Aaron and Lucian were not much better; Lucian's glasses falling down his nose without his noticing.

Mr. Goodshow, in all his years of watching matches, knew this was definitely something never seen before.

Then again, so was that power surge move. Not many trainers really experimented with the existing move criteria.

"Just what was that? It was like invisible air slashes were flying in every direction. There was a lot of kiai in that move," Candice said seriously for once with Zoey nodding with her mentor and friend.

"Yeah its arm was moving so fast it was like it was cutting the air itself."

Paul was purely stunned for once in his life. 'Ash, what on earth have you been doing!'

Professor Oak did not know what to think about that move. It was very reckless, whatever it was, but he needed answers. "Brock you probably know what that is. An explanation please."

Everyone listened eagerly.

"It's called quick sword. It's basically manipulating the energy agility produces and channeling it into the receptors of Sceptile's arm instead of both legs, increasing his slashing speed astronomically to the point where Sceptile literally is cutting air itself."

One question was eating at the professor so he asked; "From what you're saying it's the energy of agility into both legs channeled into one arm surely there's obviously a drawback if Sceptile's conditions said anything. I don't believe a limb is created to handle that amount of power. There's also the lack of control as well."

"You're correct. There is a big drawback. As you can see overuse of the techniques damages the receptors in the arm. We discovered this from Nurse Joy when we sent Sceptile for a check-up. She said while it is a problem if he overdoes it, over time the body would become accustomed to use with the receptors getting larger to deal with the excess energy and in time the limit on use would extend to longer periods, but that would take time and training. Ash has had to be careful and we've been advised when training on it to have a medic nearby in case." Brock said.

"And the lack of control?" The Professor pressed.

Brock sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"It's very difficult for Sceptile to control the direction of his slashes. They're quite wild and as you can see they're impractical in most cases. It takes a lot of control for him to use it normally which is why it mainly was going be used during power surge, when in that form he has a lot more control of that technique and it isn't as damaging for Sceptile to use, meaning a longer timeframe to use it. While it's still not long, twenty seconds is definitely better than the five it seems normally. That was the plan; at least negate dark void with substitute and try pushing him into a corner and taking him out with quick sword when he was vulnerable, but that kind of backfired," Brock sighed again.

"He definitely wasn't going to use it after haze ruined that strategy but he didn't really have much of a choice for Sceptile to defend himself, being blind at this point, so I understand why. It was also probably the only real moment quick sword would have been useful in this state. Being able to see

wouldn't have mattered, plus the protections in place for the crowd probably helped him come to that decision easier."

"Still, where did he come up with it? And power surge as well. You don't come up with them on the fly," Zoey asked.

"Power surge you already know was made on accident really. Well, so is quick sword as it's actually an incomplete technique."

A few brows rose at that. "Incomplete?"

"Yeah, its creation had been more of an accident while training. Ash had been trying to accomplish the use of agility in the receptors of Sceptile's entire body to get the highest possible perception, reaction time and quicker movement. It was more of a long term project which as you can see produced some interesting results while trying to channel agility's energy into different limbs." Brock stated.

**(Equivalent of lightning armour from Naruto, basically)**

Everyone looked speechless, unable to really compute how Ash had come up with this.

The professor couldn't help but analyse Ash's discovery.

'So in theory, on top of having a such a high increase in perception, speed and reaction time, along with the ability to increase mobility of a single limb, Sceptile could be near unstoppable for a small time,' The Professor thought to himself.

It was doubtful Sceptile or any Pokémon would be able to sustain such a heightened state for long periods without a high cost, but in a one on one match it would difficult to see Ash losing. Still, that was years of training away to even contemplate such.

At this point quick sword was very effective, but it definitely needed more control. In theory Sceptile could produce something of a similar effect if channelled into one leg and not two, in that he could kick much harder.

Perhaps a new entry in the future of the first grass/flying type without actually having the weaknesses of one would be possible.

No one would really complain. Gyarados was classed as a water/flying type despite not be able to fly or really use any Flying type moves other than bounce. Maybe that's why the original discoveries of Gyarados believed it to be a flying type with it constantly bouncing as high as it could as if it could fly in the sky while sharing the weaknesses on one.

Cynthia wasn't really sure what to think.

This was definitely uncharted territory when it came to Pokémon, and it was Ash who had come up with this crazy idea. She knew he had a big bag of tricks when it came to battling but this was something else altogether. 'Just where do you come up with this Ash?'

**Scene change to Battlefield**

'Just what was that?' Thought Tobias, speechless.

He really could not describe what Sceptile had just done to damage to field so much, and so quickly.

Whatever it was, though, Sceptile definitely did not have control of it seeing as Darkrai did not have any difficulty avoiding it with so few air slashes actually on target.

Analyzing his opponent's Pokémon's condition, he saw that said Pokémon was trying to heal the damaged arm with synthesis (with limited success it seemed). It was clear it was also self-inflicted damage - probably from the friction of the limb moving so fast or channeling so much energy into its arm, or even a combination of both.

'The good news is that it probably a one-time use for today, so that's good.'

But Tobias had to wonder just what his other Pokémon were capable of doing if this kid could come up with such an insane technique.

The good news for Ash was that they were still in the battle and it looked like Sceptile's vision was starting to return from the squinting it was doing while healing its arm.

The bad news was that Sceptile didn't have much energy left in him and its right arm probably wouldn't be very effective for the rest of the battle.

He watched his Pokémon grit its teeth and stand up again while gripping the arm. The healing hadn't done much visibly - the veins still popped out - but it at least looked usable. He would have to avoid using it as much as possible.

Tobias seemed to have regained his composure by then so he doubted he'd receive the time to use synthesis again to recover energy instead of healing a limb.

"I don't know what that was just now, but it's clear your Sceptile doesn't have much fight left in him. Its right arm is useless and it probably cannot even defend itself," Tobias stated with confidence, seeing Sceptile's poor condition.

"That's not true!" Ash yelled with vehemence.

Sceptile was in agreement with its trainer, taking a defensive stance once more. Nevertheless it wore a grimace from its wounded arm.

"I'll show you then, Darkrai use phantom force!" Tobias ordered.

Darkrai glowed dark purple before completely vanishing from sight.

**VIP Box**

"Phantom force, what's that?" Misty asked never having heard of it. It looked many of the others hadn't either.

Professor Oak knew, having done research on it. "It's a ghost type move, a very rare one. It has the ability to pierce through any defense and it's not able to be blocked as well. Ash is going to have a hard time defending against it."

"So Sceptile is a sitting Psyduck, not good." Misty said with concern.

"You're one to talk about Psyduck's; I heard you had a pretty stupid one." Gary teased, obviously not having learnt his lesson earlier if Brock's expression said anything.

The mallet smashed into the back of Gary's head, knocking the fool out and scaring others around him, although Cynthia looked at Misty with interest, a slight glint in her eye.

**Battlefield**

Ash grimaced at another new move from Darkrai. This time it was one he had never heard of before, and Darkrai had completely disappeared from sight.

"Sceptile keep an eye out; Darkrai could strike from anywhere!"

Sceptile's vision was now back to normal and it was rotating its head in every direction, but saw nothing.

Tobias smirked and pointed his finger ahead. "Darkrai, now!"

There was no real warning to show Darkrai's reappearance; no flashing light showing it's re-entrance to the field; it just ghosted in behind Sceptile unknowingly.

Ash yelled in warning. "Sceptile, behind you!"

Sceptile didn't have any time to actually move before be being slammed in the back, earning a painful grunt and knocking the grass type off balance. It steadied itself immediately, though.

Looking around it noticed Darkrai had disappeared again. Round two then.

"Sceptile use detect!" Ash ordered seeing that his Pokémon had no real time to mount a counter so he had to defend.

'Bad move Ash; phantom force cannot be blocked.' Cynthia thought.

And she was right; as soon as Darkrai reappeared Sceptile was knocked off its feet this time, completely caught off guard with detect's ineffectiveness.

Darkrai, seeing his opponent down it quickly launched an ice beam. Not the improved version it had been using previously though. The battle was starting to wear on Darkrai as well, it seemed.

Unable to dodge Sceptile quickly used both blades as a shield to try and limit the damage, which proved to be effective but froze both blades once more. The ice encasing them was much thicker this time around, making the blades much heavier.

Darkrai disappeared for a third time - again using phantom force - much to Ash and Sceptile's frustration.

Sceptile this time predicted the direction Darkrai would reappear from, so not being able to dodge he took advantage of the large chunks of ice on his blade as shields to try and absorb the impact.

Darkrai's left shoulder met the twin ice blades but with Darkrai having the momentum he pushed Sceptile back, sliding along the ground digging up more turf of the already battered battlefield.

The ice encasing Sceptile's blades was cracking and shattered before they finally came to a standstill, both Pokémon pushing against one another.

Tobias smirked. "This position looks familiar, wouldn't you agree Ash?"

Ash's eye's widened in understanding.

"Sceptile close your eyes!"

Sceptile was quick to comply with the order, not wanting a second experience of flash.

Tobias smirk got even wider. "You fell for it hook line and sinker, Darkrai dark void and end this!"

"Shit, no!"

If the Darkrai could have smirked it would have. Using it's free hand not pushing against Sceptile it formed the ball once more.

Sceptile's eye's had barely opened when Darkrai had made dark void and was now from Sceptile's eye's in slow motion reaching out to press it into his chest.

Sceptile's eyes slowly widened in shock. He didn't know what to do; he couldn't move to dodge, substitute would pretty much take him out anyway, so what could he do?

Having a second at most to try and register a response he felt something click in his brain so he went on instinct.

Within centimetres of contact Sceptile vanished from sight causing Darkrai to overextend in surprise, but not for long with Sceptile reappearing underneath and with incredible speed upper-cutting him straight up into the heavens, spinning out of control.

Looks like aerial ace had become accessible again just in time.

"What!" Tobias roared furiously.

 **"Unbelievable! It seems Sceptile used aerial ace just in the nick of time to get out of another sticky situation, and now Darkrai is spinning out of control!"** The commentator screamed in delight. this was some battle, he thought.

"Amazing that the move that started the battle saved him again. It looks like disable wore off." Cynthia said out loud.

Dawn grinned. "Now's your chance Ash! Get him!"

"Yeah Ash get him!" Misty cheered, fist pumping with one hand and currently chocking a purple in the face Gary with the other while he spluttered out apologies.

Brock himself stood up ignoring Gary's pleas for help and glared down below screaming at Ash. "Sceptile's worn out, you got to get him now!"

Despite being shocked, Ash was able to somehow hear Brock over crowd. Looking above he could see Darkrai still spinning out of control with its altitude increasing, and Sceptile needed to get up there. Glancing around he noticed two of the ice spears still sticking out of the walls of the stadium at varying heights, having survived the quick sword assault to his great fortune.

"This is it Sceptile, let's get them! Get up there using the ice spears stuck in the wall!"

Sceptile charged behind Ash where the two ice spears were, using agility once more to increase its speed, quickly jumping on top of the first ice pillar and reached the second one higher up, landing in a crouch.

Angling himself and using the momentum of the first jump he forced himself as high as he could destroying the second Spear with the force of the jump.

Sceptile was just able to get above Darkrai who was now was regaining control of its flight.

"Use leaf blade as you fall!" Ash screamed to Sceptile who was now falling down towards Darkrai using the momentum of the fall to increase the power of its blade.

Tobias didn't panic though. "Intercept with poison jab!"

As Sceptile came down with its right blade Darkrai countered using poison jab with its left arm which caused Sceptile to flinch as his arm was still tender.

The impact caused the pair to fall towards the ground at higher rate of speed, Sceptile having the extra momentum was pushing against Darkrai, move type advantage or not.

The same process repeated with the other blade against the second Poison jab leaving them at a stalemate as they approached the ground.

Sceptile knew he had to break this stalemate or they were both boned.

He was running on pure adrenaline at the moment.

Not really thinking about Sceptile smashed its head against Darkrai causing it to flinch and forced it slightly away, giving Sceptile the opening he needed.

Sceptile executed a quick spin and smashed its left blade into Darkrai's side accelerating its fall to the ground, causing it to collide with the center of the field with a large explosion, causing a smokescreen, which Sceptile was quick to cut through as he fell seeing his opponent down and in a large crater.

It was time to end this; he'd remember that he'd have to thank Pikachu later.

"This is it, Lights out iron tail!" Ash screamed in glee feeling his first victory.

Sceptile smirked. Despite being meters from the ground he did a forward mid-air flip slamming down its large glowing silver tail into Darkrai with a crunch.

Darkrai screamed for the first time, its body jerking up from contact, and the crater widened further while debris flew into the air.

Pushing off the downed Darkrai, Sceptile landed close by in a crouched position before grabbing its arm in agony. It seemed he had pushed the limb too far. He needed rest, he realized as he gasped for air. It also had a headache from using its skull like that - he swore he'd lost brain cells.

Sceptile weakly glanced at Pikachu next to his happy trainer who gave him a thumbs up which he weakly returned.

**"What a devastating close range combo! The fall from the sky was painful enough but the falling iron tail was brutal! Is this curtains for Darkrai?"**

"What a combo, he used the fall to increase the momentum of leaf blade against Darkrai and left it no room to maneuver. And that final iron tail was devastating enough that that should be it for Darkrai," Brock said, proud of his friend and his Pokémon.

"All right, first victory for Ash!" Dawn screamed in delight while hugging Zoey who was next to her.

Delia clapped her hands in delight of her son's first victory.

'Well done Ash you've really outdone yourself.' Cynthia thought wistfully having a lovely smile on her face.

Ash, while happy at taking the first win, knew the cost was high. It was very unlikely that Sceptile would able to take further part in this battle.

Its right arm was near useless at this point and he would only further damage it if pushed any further so it really was a draw from his standpoint.

Unknown to Ash and everyone Darkrai was still conscious, but just barely.

Darkrai didn't know what to think about its opponent. It had been the first in a long time it had been pushed so hard in a battle.

It normally held back his capabilities so that the battles were remotely amusing, but it wasn't necessary today. he had been beaten by a worthy opponent.

It was pleasing to know he could actually be challenged by Pokémon other than his teammates.

'Still it would have been interesting to witness a match between this Sceptile against my masters starter… the last one… who… defeated… me.'

That was Darkrai's last thought as it drifted into unconsciousness. While it had lost the battle it was satisfied. Seeing the swirl encompass Darkrai's visible eye the referee was quick to raise his Flag.

"Darkrai is unable to battle, Sceptile is the winner!" The referee yelled.

His friends and family were delighted for him along with the crowd who were cheering for the underdog.

But Ash had mixed feeling on his first victory. He had taken the first round but at what cost.

**AN: Decided to cut it off there, this battle wore me out writing. Still hope you all like it.**

**I always like the little combos Ash seemed to come up to get out of jam like thunder armour, or even on accident with Energy ball swallowing. But it does piss me off he seems to just forget about them and never use them again. His memory seems to be just as bad with promises to released Pokémon.**

**I know I made Sceptile pretty badass but he won't be the only one so keep that in mind.**

**I know I didn't use all Sceptile's moves but they weren't needed this time around. Instead they will come into play later.**

**There were a few moves thrown in from different animes, can you pick them all?**

**I'm sure there are some question for me, so I'll do my best to answer PMs and I'll answer what I can.**

**Anyway read and review. I would love to know what you think of the battle so far and what I can improve on other than grammar obviously**

**Later, Lightningbalde49**


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dirty jokes this chapter

**Chapter 7 here we go!**

It was like an explosion had gone off around the stadium the noise was through the roof with cheers. The battle had started with a bang for the crowd. The underdog had pulled the first win and now they'd finally see what else this mysterious character Tobias had in store.

Ash had to sigh despite being happy with Darkrai being out of the way, the cost had been high Sceptile was out of this battle no ifs or buts. Looking at the Pokémon it was still clutching it's arm despite no real facial expression of pain it was obvious Sceptile was putting up a front for his trainer and there opponent.

He knew how hard headed his grass type was, he'd keep going despite the pain. But the risk outweighed the gain in this case. Long term injury was the last thing he wanted for his Pokémon, he knew what he had to do even if it might upset some people health came first in his mind.

Ash looked at the referee catching his attention.

"Ref I'm withdrawing Sceptile from the battle. His arm needs urgent treatment!"

The ref nodded announcing it to the crowd through his mike with mixed reactions on the audience's part. Most were happy the young trainer cared for his Pokémon enough to not risk further injury. While other battle hungry fans wanted to see Sceptile in action some more, it had just defeated a legendary Pokémon not something you see every day.

(VIP Box)

Cynthia nodded in agreement with Ash's decision 'best not risk further injury' she thought.

Her view was also shared with everyone else, they were now waiting in anticipation for Tobias and Ash's next Pokémon.

(Battlefield)

Tobias was frowning he was quite honestly stunned with Darkrai's defeat. He had been on top most of the battle pushing Sceptile into a corner but Ash seemingly had an endless supply of tricks to get him out of a pinch.

Pure luck was also involved with Aerial ace's re-emergence but that's how the cookie crumbles when using disable. There was no set time till the disabled move becomes available again and it varied per use sometimes 30 seconds to half an hour it was a lottery.

It took one moment to turn the entire battle around, if his other Pokémon are anything like Sceptile he would have to keep his guard up despite a clear power advantage.

On the plus side Sceptile was out of the battle, seeing Ash return the Pokémon and hand the Poke ball to a Nurse Joy who had run onto the field to give urgent care, probably for its damaged arm.

Despite Sceptile being withdrawn the first round had been his loss but he could not allow Ash to think he had the high ground, putting on a smirking he spoke to Ash.

"Well done, you really pushed me harder than any trainer I've ever faced so far."

"Thanks." Ash nodded.

Tobias grin got broader drawing a poke ball. "But don't think this battle is over yet, you have no idea what I have in store for you next." Before throwing his poke ball releasing a Blue blur who rushed past the surprised Ash and Pikachu before climbing high in the sky.

When the Pokémon settled back down in front of Tobias, Ash gritted his teeth his worst fear confirmed.

(VIP BOX)

"A Latios….. damn!" Barry said both shocked and awed.

Gary was frowning concerned for his friend. "Not what Ashy-boy needed that's for sure."

"Considering he's been using Darkrai to one shot everyone he's facing, another legendary isn't really such a surprise." Lucien said calmly.

Worried glances were exchanged between Misty, Zoey and Dawn this was worst possible outcome, more legendary.

"Ash just needs to be positive, keep his kiai up and I'm certain he'll defeat Latios as well." Candice said being positive to try and lift the mood of the girls next to her.

Brock was calm despite it all this was what they were expecting another legendary. Sceptile had done its job of getting Darkrai out of the way but it was one senior Pokémon down and three left. Ash had been hoping to give his younger Pokémon a bit more assistance in there fights but it was shaping up to be unlikely if the first battle said anything.

Ash really needs both Glalie and Infernape to come through to leave less pressure on their other three senior teammates.

(Battlefield)

'Looks like I guessed correctly there is a Dragon type on his team just not what I was expecting. At least it's not something like a Rayquaza or id be quite literally screwed.' Ash thought sweating at the mere possibility.

Looking at Latios Ash could see it was definitely bigger than the one he encountered in Altomore and definitely more powerful being a trained Pokémon.

'Hopefully our training has payed off, this will definitely be a tight match despite type advantage.'

"Go Glalie!" Ash shouts and throws his Pokeball.

The Large Ice head emerges its twin black horns glinting menacingly in the sun.

"Glllaaaallllieeee!" vapour coming out of its mouth.

" **Ash responds with Glalie a wise choice!"** The commentator yells, only just getting over the appearance of a second legendary.

Tobias was analysing Ash's choice it was a pretty normal choice in this situation.

'Typical an ice type to counter a dragon, but he's chosen one of the slowest ice types. Surely he's realised this he's going to have a lot of difficulty evading my speedy Latios meaning it must have a defensive move in place.'

Seeing the ref raise both flags Tobias was quick to go on the offensive to test his theory.

"Latios giga Impact!" Tobias ordered.

Swirling purple energy quickly enveloped the dragon as it quickly closed the distance on Glalie.

"Quick protect!" Glalie quickly the green shield went in place just before impact grunting as it was pushed back in the air from the force of the impact but avoided damage.

"Now ice beam!" which was quickly formed between its twin Horns and launched at the frozen Latios.

Tobias smirked at Ash filling the youth with unease. "Don't think just because Latios can't move for the moment it's defenceless, use psychic redirect it back to sender!"

"What!" yelled Ash in disbelief how could Latios use psychic when it needs to recharge from Giga impact.

Latios eyes glowed as Ice beam slowly was turned in an arc and went back the way it came.

Glalie drifted out of its flight path letting collided with the arena wall freezing a good part of it.

"How!" Ash demanded that was not normal at all.

Tobias was now grinning seeing the annoyance on the youths face. " Psychic requires the use of mental/psychic energy which is a different source of power from the reserves Pokémon normally draw from. Because Latios was recharging from the use of its normal reserves it doesn't apply to mental energy, meaning Latios can use psychic moves while recharging."

'But I didn't say it's a lot more draining to do such a thing while recharging but that's a quick fix.' Tobias thought to himself.

Ash was gobsmacked along with most the audience. 'Damn now I can't attack with Ice attack while he's recharging, And I can't use physical moves because he'd just catch Glalie in his psychic grip which is even worse.'

Lucien was wide eyed. "Ingenious way to get around such a drawback, but that will only work with powerful psychic types the mental energy required to both recharge and attack mentally would be immense."

Cynthia gritted her teeth. 'Looks like Ash isn't the only one with a big bag of tricks, but whose is deeper.'

"Ash this should look familiar to you aerial ace!" Tobias shouted.

Ash and Glalie had no time to react as Latios rammed Glalie straight between the eyes like a bullet, slamming Glalie into the ice encased wall shattering the remains of Darkrai's ice spears.

Ash's was sweating seeing Latios sheer speed. 'So fast, that was even quicker than Sceptile's!'

"Now steel wing!" Both of Latios wings turned metallic as it zoomed straight at the slowly recovering Glalie who was just getting itself out of the wall.

Glalie had to close it eyes light was reflecting off Latios wings blinding him from seeing its positioning.

"Double team!" Despite it being blind multiple copies of Glalie appeared along the wall confusing Latios who stopped not wanting to run the risk of hitting a fake and ploughing into the wall itself.

The copies moved to surrounded Latios seeing the danger Tobias quickly formed a counter.

"Knock them all out draco meteor!"

"It knows draco meteor!" Ash screamed.

A ball of energy formed in Latios mouth, quickly pointing its head to the sky it launched the ball. At the peak of the climb the ball exploded in the sky showering the field with mini meteors quickly destroying each copy.

The real one was able to shield itself at the last second with protect saving itself from being knocked out.

Ash quickly wiped his head in relief. 'That was close if that had connected Ice type or not, Glalie would not have gotten up from that.'

"Well done if you had not protected yourself from Draco meteor Glalie would have lost the match." Tobias commented.

Ash gritted his teeth he wasn't sure if that was an insult or genuine praise. It was hard for him to get a read on Tobias.

"I see you're using Protect to cover the lack of speed Glalie has, bold move considering the risk protect carries of failing. So far luck has favoured you, but luck can only carry you so far!"

A stoic expression showed on Ash's face. 'Well that was definitely an insult.'

"But from what I've seen of our first bout, surely there's something else in reserve?" Tobias said eyeing Ash knowingly.

Ash smirked in response. "You'll just have to wait and see."

Tobias own smirk got wider as well chuckling to himself.

"That's enough talk Ash, now let us continue."

"Alright then Glalie let blind them use blizzard." Glalie whipped a snowstorm which was contained inside the psychic barrier not affecting the audience.

Cynthia was pleased by the move 'Good move Ash, use your Pokémon's traits to your advantage.'

Latios was being pelted from a mix of snow and Ice, visibility was very poor it couldn't see thing neither could it's trainer who gritted his teeth annoyed.

"Latios use safeguard!" Tobias realised his Pokémon would also have trouble seeing his opponent so it was best to limit the damage till he could come up with something to get rid of this pesky storm.

"Glalie lets a do a bit of hit and run use the storm to your advantage as cover!"

Glalie himself could see fairly clearly through the storm he was made for these sorts of conditions this was his battlefield time to take control and knockout this pesky dragon he'd been mostly on the receiving end time for some revenge a menacing smirk forming on its cold lips.

Glalie could see Latios was stationary in one position clearly trying to spot him. So he quickly started firing a mix of Ice beam and Ice shard, moving position through each use to make it as difficult as possible for Latios to spot him.

Glalie was really enjoying himself he was pelting the helpless legendary, he definitely had a story to share when he got home, but he had to take down the midget dragon first.

Latios grunted annoyed he was taking major pounding here, if this had been a Pokémon of similar strength he'd have been knocked out by now. But it was clear his Opponent was quite a young Pokémon it's attacks lacked the killer punch to it despite type advantage not to say the Ice attack weren't hurting him. His pride hurt a hell of a lot more from the stupid insults now being thrown his way from the young dynamo who was clearly getting cockier by the second.

It was frustrating not being able to find the horned devil his wings were not solar panels!

Latios in frustration starting firing dragon pulses in any direction he thought he sore the little devil.

Hopefully he'd hit him soon the insults were getting lamer by the minute his breath did not smell like Bacon.

Pikachu could only shake his head at the all-round stupidity going on his little ears hearing every word coming out of Glalie mouth despite the gale winds. He knew Glalie would eventually get what's coming to him, you don't antagonise a legendary ever not matter how big or small it was not worth the trouble.

He was also creating an unneeded opening for Latios to find him and destroy the advantage our team had gained. Pikachu knew he had to try and stop Glalie from making such a mistake so did what came natural being the leader of the team took a big breath and unleashed.

Pikachu didn't realise even though he could hear what was happening in the storm, his voice would not carry the same distance being outside it.

Ash was grinning the longer the storm was up the more likely the battle will go in his favour and it looked like Tobias didn't have a counter for this which made it all the sweeter,.

The only question he had was why Pikachu was shaking his little fist and yelling at the force of nature in front of them like an idiot.

Perhaps he was upset his shiny coat was getting all dirty from dirt being picked up from the swirling winds. Wouldn't be the first time despite enjoying the thrill of Battle his pika pal was a bit of clean freak.

He almost throttled Torkoal for blowing soot in his face when they were travelling in Hoenn. Who he now the mouse kept at least a 10 metre distance away from at all times.

'Either way not my problem.' Thought Ash not realising how wrong he was.

Tobias could sense his Pokémon's frustration, he was as well but it was not time for either of them tolose its heads. While not being able to see through the storm the random specks of light appearing in different direction gave him a good clue what latios was doing.

"Latios use calm mind don't lose your head here, try and anticipate which direction Glalie is going to strike then counter."

Latios took a deep breath trying to ignore the comments and the pain it received from the ice shards his opponents was throwing it's way it's big mouth will be it undoing soon, wait that's it!

Listening carefully to Glalie's voice he was able to pick up the voice was slowly moving into position behind him. Glancing carefully in that direction he made out a round shape.

'Got you, big mouth!' thought Latios grinning at the shape and charged straight at it with steel wing activated.

An oh shit expression formed on Glalies face, he had no time to react before he was smashed with latios left wing straight at the ground forming another Crater in the scared battleground.

"Glalie!" Ash screamed at his downed pokemon the storm quickly started to clear revealing a pissed off yet satisfied looking Legendary.

Pikachu slapped his head annoyed having realised Glalie had probably not heard him his own error of judgement.

'Idiot!'

"Latios luster purge!" Tobias ordered looking relieved to be able to see his Pokémon again.

With relish Latios launched the purple beam right at Glalie.

"Glalie protect!" Ash screamed there was no time to dodge with Glalie clearly feeling the impact.

Moaning in pain Glalie tried to form his shield once more but it dissipated allowing the beam to slam into him causing an explosion where he laid.

"Glalie!" "Pika!" Pokémon and trainer screamed in worry.

"That could be it for a Glalie, back to back direct hits!" Said Flint.

Whose words were mimicked by the commentator?

Candice was quick to punch him on the head for said comment. "It's not over yet, don't underestimate the power of Ice type Pokemon!"

"Yeah you're right, what was I Thinking Ice types rule!" Flint said nervously trying to placate the ice Princess, seeing her fist waving in his face he didn't want another lump this chick was crazy.

Zoey was seen trying and failing to pull her friend away from Flint, much to the others amusement.

"What do you think Brock?" Misty asked.

Brock was calm despite the current drama. "We'll see, either way I don't think Glalie could take another attack in his current state."

Shortly the dust settle revealing a conscious Glalie still buried into the ground but slowly struggling to rise up. Eye's shut grimacing in agony the Pokemon definitely could not take much more.

It slowly got out of hole it was buried into and floated very low to the ground, shaking and glaring with a single eye open at the smirking legendary.

Ash was unclenching his fist nerves slightly easing they were still in this but one more hit like that and that's all she wrote. The question of substituting never crossing his mind despite Glalie's condition his game plan wasn't in ruin yet but it was close call.

Tobias was surprised the Pokémon was still standing or in this case floating. But it looked to be on its last legs but he wasn't entirely assured the round was his, the last match vividly kept replaying in his mind. Did he doubt he could no win no! But was he confident to call it a victory not yet.

'I don't want Ash thinking that he can get back into this match with some hidden surprise best crush that last shred of confidence!'

"Latios you took quite a beating inside that storm use recover to regain your strength!"

Ash gritted his teeth. "Damn that's the last thing we needed!" Latios was glowing brightly its bruises disappearing from Glalie's Ice barrage.

Latios immediately saw the displeasure on the Ice types face to his glee all that effort for nothing.

"What's got your horns bent out of shape?"

Glalie growled. "My horns are perfectly horny thank you very much!"

"What?"

Latios now look disgusted, and Pikachu moaned once more grabbing his face with both hands.

'Still the same as always, Ignorant and a loud mouth!' mentally screamed the mouse.

Glalie looked even more pissed off at Latios expression.

"I said im perfectly horny, what is there not to understand."

"Do you even know what you're saying?" Latios yelled stupefied at the Pokémon's ignorance.

Tick marks formed on Pikachu's face. 'Damn you Bulbasaur, you did this on purpose didn't you!' cursing his friend for not teaching the Pidgey and Beedrills.

Both trainers didn't seem to notice the yelling match between Pokemon and one mouse trying to bury itself. They were far more interested in glaring there opponent into submission.

"Your Glalie is done, it put up some futile resistance but im going to end this right now!"

Tobias didn't normally act like this but Ash just seemed to rub him the wrong way, or it could have just been that Darkrai actually lost a fight to a child of all things.

"Don't think this over, Glalie has plenty more to give starting right now Glalie, power surge!"

His Pokémon grinned at the growling Latios before quickly forming an ice shard and swallowing it.

Glalie's body started shining brightly its glare blinding both trainers and the audience.

"Not again!" Tobias growled out squinting at the bright light.

The light 10 seconds later dissipated revealing the upgraded Glalie earning some raised eyebrows at its appearance.

'What the hell!' thought both trainer and legendary.

Glalie Head had gotten slightly bigger, with an extra layer of ice acting as armour on its thick outer shell. The biggest difference was the appearance of multiple small but thick ice spikes all over its body shooting out in each direction, giving him the similar appearance of a sea urchin. The two original horns on its head were noticeably larger then the others and were now slightly curved upward like a Tauros.

It was quite the change indeed.

**VIP BOX**

Most of the box was speechless with the change in appearance for the Ice type, with one Gym leader sparkly eyed.

Candice was drooling. "I want one!"

Cynthia was the first get over her shock. "Why is this power surge so different, then Sceptile's!"

To perfectly honest Brock did have an answer for her on that aspect, power surge seemed to react differently for each Pokemon, perhaps it had something to do with the Pokémon's physical development. Sceptile was a speedy Pokémon so the power up added further assistance to said attribute.

Glalie was much more power based then speed.

His thoughts were shared by the wise Professor who said theory verbally.

"If that's the case then why the extra layer of armour, and what's with the spikes?" Barry questioned.

"Im not sure, we won't know till we see Glalie in action in this form?" said Professor Oak.

Gary was more concerned at the likely negative of this form. "It's got be even slower now with how bulked up it is in size, how's it going to dodge now?"

"Shut up! we don't know for sure what the difference till it battles, one thing is for certain Glalie kiai is through the roof!" Candice screamed standing arms raised above her head, eye's still shining Glalie's victory all but assured in her head.

Cynthia, Bertha and Misty applauded her speech ignoring the other spectacle left in her wake.

The rest were more worried about joining #cough# concerned of the smoking body of Professor Oaks Grandson on the ground a large lump pulsating on his head.

Paul just shook his head at everyone, they were all idiots.

**Battlefield**

Glalie new appearance was an unpleasant but not a completely unexpected surprise to Tobias. He was more surprised the Pokémon still had the stamina to hold this form. It was also very different then Ash's Sceptile's a lot more bulky definitely not suited for speed but the extra ice coating could provide a stronger defence, and those spikes shooting out it's round form would make close range combat very hazardous. Overall quite the menacing appearance but he could not allow Ash to think he was intimidated by Glalie.

"I see you made Glalie an even larger target for my Latios!"

"We'll see!" Ash growled.

Latios seemed to look stupefied at Glalie's appearance, while that was partly true he was far more stunned at something else.

"What?"

"Now that I'm in my extra horny form, I'm going to crush you beneath my body!" Glalie bellowed loudly.

Latios kept blinking unable to comprehend its statement.

"Are you real?"

Surely this was a dream he certainly never seen a Glalie look like this before, or such ignorance in a Pokémon. Clearly whoever taught him the Pidgey and Beedrills did a very poor job.

Pikachu continued to quietly plot the murder of his fellow teammate at home.

**(Ash pov)**

Ash knew it was a bit of a gamble to use this form now but he didn't have much choice at this point if he wanted any chance of winning this battle though one wrong move could spell disaster.

Its true Glalie is a lot slower than Latios even slower now with the extra weight it's carrying but its firepower had increased exponentially. The major problem was actually hitting the target, he'd need to either have Glalie catch Latios off-guard or manoeuvre him into a position where it could not dodge. At that point Glalie could finish him with his special technique, while it could also be effective on a moving target it was a one use only and Glalie would pretty much be out of power. So we needed to get the most out of his original move.

'Question is how do we score a direct hit on something so fast and that can fly.'

Ash glanced around the ice in the wall from earlier was all shattered from Sceptile jumps and Glalie colliding with it's remains so he couldn't use them. The battlefield was scared with multiple slices in the ground and a couple of large craters.

The field was useless against this opponent being all broken up.

"Wait maybe!" Ash's eyes widened pieces of a possible plan falling together.

"No time to stop and the see the roses Ash, there's a battle going on so don't nap on the job Latios luster purge!" Tobias yelled.

The beam was so fast for Glalie it couldn't move an inch for it connected.

"Glalie!" Ash yelled.

"What's the point in more power if you sacrifice mobility do it again latios?" Tobias commented.

Another beam followed the first into the dust cloud followed by a third for good measure and Latios stopped to catch his breath.

"You're just a sitting duck no matter how powerful it has be….what!"

Tobias face was priceless along with the crowd's expressions.

The dust cloud revealed Glalie looking completely untouched like nothing happened at all.

"How can it withstand such an assault?" Tobias said breathlessly eye's wide along with his Pokémon.

"Nice Glalie!" Ash screamed with glee.

(Vip Box)

"That luster purge barrage was unreal yet Glalie hardly budged!" Barry screamed mouth wide open along with the other teenagers in the room.

The professor was very impressed "Very impressive defence it certainly formidable. Latios will have trouble breaching that defence although it looks like Glalie stamina has not gained the same increase."

Glalie could be clearly seen panting slightly that barrage had tooks it toll despite it still standing.

"Defence isn't going to win this." Flint murmured to himself feeling a glare at his back knowing who she was he was quick to add on.

"Although if it's attacking prowess has gained similar potency then this is anyone's game." Feeling the burning in his back cease Flint sighed in relief, glad he'd satisfied the Ice princess he'd keep his mouth shut from now on.

Volkner shook his head knowingly; Flint never knew when to keep his mouth shut.

"Why isn't Ash retaliating?" Misty asked aloud.

"He's waiting for an opening!" Said Paul.

Lucien nodded. "He's right Ash can't just try to blast him out of sky it would be a waste of energy which Glalie has already used a lot up with that barrage during Blizzard. You have to take into account Latios Psychic abilities as a last line of defence. Close range is also pointless for the same reason."

"Ash has to wait for an opening to present itself and strike like my Torterra does." Commented Paul.

"But then Glalie is just going to get pummelled its defence might be strong but its stamina is clearly not, it won't be long till let's go of that form. What was the point in creating this if you don't have a way to hurt your enemies when there this quick?" Zoey said.

"He can hit Latios!" Brock said out loud but didn't explain how ignoring the barrage of questions.

'This forms not perfect but its true power reveals itself when Glalie lets go of power surge.' Brock thought to himself biting his lip before sighing.

'But even then Glalie would be completely vulnerable when he does and the unleashing might not be strong enough to finish off Latios anyway, if it just continues to keeps restoring health with recover so it's most likely Ash has _that_ planned!'

Seeing Brock lost in his own world they realised it would be best to wait and see what Ash is up to.

What they saw completely contradicted what the group were thinking, it went to show you can never predict what Ash ketchum's next move.

(Battlefield) 30 seconds prior

" **I don't know how but Glalie is still standing strong so this is still anyone's match!"** Yelled the commentator.

Tobias frowned at Ash he hadn't tried to attack Latios at all, was he trying to bait him into attacking again?

A continued assault would just wear out both Pokémon and Latios would also get slower making it an easier target despite Glalie's own exhaustion.

'So is it pissing contest you want, well then perhaps a change of Tactics is required!' But before Tobias could make a command to Latios Ash was quicker on trigger.

"Glalie use ice beam on the Field!" Ash yelled.

A large ball of ice particles formed quickly between its curved horns before angling it's head forward and immediately froze a small batch of ground in front of him before the Ice quickly spread out and completely covered destroyed field making it near possible for land based pokemon to keep their balance on its slippery surface.

" **Glalie has frozen the field, what possible strategy could this play in Ash's favour?" said the commentator.**

"You're just setting up your next's Pokémon defeat that was pointless." Said Tobias his Pokémon sharing similar thoughts.

'Good Tobias doesn't suspect us, but this is going to leave us open for attack Glalie will need to guts it out because it will be the only chance we have make an opening!' Ignoring Tobias remarks Ash was quick to make his next move.

"Now climb quickly!" Yelled Ash.

Despite not understanding what Ash planned Glalie had tried it's best to follow orders but the extra weight of its armoured shell was weighing it down making progress painfully slow.

"You're just making this easier for me to win!" Smirked Tobias seeing the slow climb of his opponent, his original plan leaving his mind and a new one taking its place.

"Latios get under Glalie then climb as well." Like a rocket Latios was in position and climbing upwards rapidly approaching its target.

"Use steel wing and spin!"

It's winged glowed with power as it rotated clockwise gaining speed by the revolution soon creating a wind vortex surrounding him.

"Your not the only one that can do combinations Ash now use Giga Impact!" Tobias commanded the vortex quickly took a purple sheen and expanded to accommodate the increase in power.

Tobias was happy to see the surprised face of Ash's it was about time he one upped him.

He was also pleased with his new 'Giga drill' takeing form, spike or no spike defence Latios was going tear through Glalie's armour like tissue paper.

Snapping out of his shock he quickly tried to counter.

"Glalie quick ice beam!" Suddenly stopping Glalie had little time to mount said response before impact occurred.

For the first time since entering power surge Glalie screamed in agony as he was sent hurtling higher into the air shards of Ice falling from the sky as he flew even higher.

Tobias smirked victoriously. "You left yourself wide open with that manoeuvre, that was moronic thinking you didn't even think of attempting to use protect to shield your Pokémon!"

"Grrrrr!" Ash growled realising he made an poor error in Judgement.

Glalie had recovered it flight now hovering at least 50 metres above the arena, the damage it took had been severe the entire underside of Glalies armour had been torn to shreds. With almost all the spikes cracked or splintered in half along with a good amount of its outer defensive shell seemingly been peeled off.

Ash realised they now had a very big opening in Glalie's armour for Latios to exploit, his plan had to come into action now even though Glalie had taken a big hit, Latios had pushed his Pokémon into a high enough position.

Now it was there turn to lay the hurt.

"Glalie Use gyro ball on Latios full speed!" Glalie let go of its levitation, the fall helping increase the rotations of his body and give the added speed to the move he sorely lacked.

The added speed Glalie suddenly gained caught Tobias off guard, but his Pokémon's response more then compensated for it.

Using Aerial ace to get out of the way of the falling hunk of Ice, just in the Knick of time.

Latios didn't dare try to strike back not wanting to risk injury on one of Glalie's remaining spikes despite destroying close to a quarter of them on its underside.

"Use Gyro ball on the field."

"What!" screamed Tobias.

"Not another one!" screamed Mr Goodshow out of character earning some raised eyebrows form the sinnoh elite four and Professor Oak.

Blushing the Old man said nothing and turned back to the battle just in the nick of time.

Glalie came out of it spin just as he made contact with the Ice, it two Massive horn piercing straight through the turf from the added momentum with cracks quickly spreading.

A mrere instant later its round body followed cratering into the Ice with such force the entire field broke into randomly sized pieces of Ice. Which from force of impact caused the Ice chunks to rise vertically showering the stunned Latios nonstop with the thousands upon thousands shards of ice.

" **Unbelievable what an Impact creating an Ice shards rise upwards and shower Latios under its fury, I have never seen like this before folks!"** Screamed the Commentator grabbing his mike with enthusiasm.

" **And it looks like Latios is down as well!"**

"Looks like Ash has done it again." Misty said stunned.

"Well that was certainly a creative way to cause damage, I certainly would not have come up with something so….!" Zoey said quietly, a certain word escaping her.

"Stupid, Insane, Unbelievable take your pick." Said Flint shaking his head there was just no reading this kid.

'Looks like you took some inspiration from our battle Ashy boy.' Gary thought to himself lying down on his cushion gazing out the window seemingly having recovered from earlier's knuckle sandwich surprise.

"What is with him destroying my fields?" Goodshow moaned quietly to himself with Proffesor Oak patting his shoulder in comfort. That boy just had no respect for the amount of time and effort it took to design these field.

But deep down he didn't truly mind, seeing Ash Battle like this truly made for it in his mind.

'Makes me wish I was young and battling my way to the Championship.' Mr Goodshow reminisced.

'This is it Ash your opening, now win this.' Cynthia cheered happily in her mind completely enthralled with the match, ignorant of the fact her dairy treat was slowing dripping away.

Volkner noticed something everyone else seemed to miss.

"Wait Glalie isn't moving!"

(Battlefield)

Ash knew this would be the last opportunity for any remote chance of scraping a win, but he could see his Pokémon was not moving.

While it clearly was not out cold with its eyes blearily open staring back at him. Ash could also see further chinks appearing in the armour with more cracks appearing by the second.

That spiralling corkscrew move Tobias created certainly had not helped mitigate the situation, along with colliding headfirst with a thick layer of Ice.

Looking back now it he could see it might not have been the greatest decision he ever made, but for the first time since he started the battle he had been coming up blank ideas wise. But it was only move at the time he could think of remotely having any chance of working and creating the opening needed for the finishing blow.

But Glalie being immobile had complicated things while he didn't need to move to actually use his own special technique, he would also not be able to escape any backlash caused or a possible counter Latios could mount despite it being unlikely.

They did have a plan b in place but that was also in ruins, he needed to be close to Latios to pull it off.

Looking to his opponents Pokémon Ash could see Latios condition was clearly not much better than Glalies, having succumbed to its wounds from the ice assault laying on the field trying to use recover to heal any blood drpping out or cuts on its body.

His trainer also was looking furious if the murderous scowl on his face said anything.

"That's it I've had, I'm tired of these games It's time you showed us some respect Latios Draco Meteor full power!" Tobias screamed ignoring the condition of his injured Pokémon.

Latios gently floated off the ground wincing trying to ignore its wounds a sinister light seemed glow from its eye's, as it opened it Mouth opened slowly forming a ball of energy.

Ash was quick to reach for his pokeball this was not worth putting Glalie through further pain, he had miscalculated on Latios own willpower.

Glalie could see what its trainer was doing, even though he could understand his trainer's feelings on the matter. He wanted to fight and fur fill his role in securing there victory.

Glalie's eye's briefly glowed before several spikes on its left side jutted out pushing against damaged turf assisting the pokemon into an upright position before retracting back into the outer shell.

Ash hesitated with the poke ball seeing his Pokémon rise up.

"Glalie are you sure!"

The ice head rocked it's head forward as if nodding.

Sighing Ash decide to believe in his Pokémon.

"Well I suppose it's actually a good thing, Latios destroyed the underside of your armour otherwise this would nothad been as simple from the ground." Ash said to himself he knew they didn't have time seeing the ball Latios was forming already twice the size of its head and increasing by the second.

"Time to lock and load buddy!"

Glalie's eyes glowed again before all its spikes on it body other then it's horns seem to jut out slightly. A whistling sound from water vapour steaming out of the gaps suddenly created in the body, which seemed to get louder by the second like it was under extreme pressure.

"Say good bye!" Yelled Tobias as Latios fired the giant orange ball straight at Glalie which quickly broke apart mere seconds are leaving its creators mouth, into multiple mini draco meteor which curved and arced towards it's intended target locked on.

Glalie's followed every target approaching seemingly trying to lock their positioning in his mind.

"Let do this return fire Ice missiles!" Yelled Ash as loud as could over the now deafening sounds of the whistling.

The pressure created from the trapped water vapour shot out all remaining mini spikes with alarming force like it name, all curving an arcing towards its intended targets the meteors locking onto their heat signatures.

The collision of the two forces of nature centre field was beyond anything seen so far in the match. With the entire stadium shaking, It's mainly large screen cutting in and out from the vibrations.

Even with psychic Pokémon protecting the people it didn't stop people from holding onto their loved one closely and finding any shelter they could.

After close to thirty seconds the vibrations settled down with a giant dust storm covering the field.

It took a further few minutes for the dust clear much to Ash anxiety and was quickly relieved to see both Pokémon alive and breathing although a lot worse of then previously.

Ash did have to wince at the state of the arena there wasn't much of a grass field only a very small patch had survived on one of the corners on his side of the field, the rest of the field was just one giant crater with the two Pokémon at the bottom of it lying next to each other.

Ash looked at Tobias who seemed to have calmed down after seemingly losing it at them he had a short fuse it seem when put under pressure.

At this point Ash wasn't really sure what will happen both Pokémon had not been called unable battle seeing they were both still conscious and moving if barely.

**(Poke pov)**

The mood in the crater was quiet both pokemon felt sore and tired.

Tension was thick though with both Pokémon having stare down from there collapsed positions trying to eyeball each other. Which Glalie decided to break.

"Hey Latios!" Glalie said quietly to the equally stricken Dragon beside him.

"What do you want now?" He groaned in equal annoyance and pain as he lay on his belly, covered in burn and scratch marks.

"I'm not horny anymore."

Latios blinked then deadpanned at the ice head beside him, thinking he was joking before realizing to whom he was speaking to.

Somehow managing to gather some energy, Latios looked up to sky as if it had the answer to his problems.

"…. Arceus, Please kill him, he won't be missed." he prayed.

"That's a mean thing to say!" Glalie said, attempting to pout but more having a scowl on his face.

"Go to hell!" Latios groaned.

Glalie smirked despite feeling like his body was on fire and slowly melting, he was satisfied with what had played out. The battle might not have gone completely to plan but he was still happy.

Smirking to his trainer Ash, who was showing concern to his own plight, he gave a slight nod that signalled he knew what he had to do and he intended to follow through.

Ash nodded in return closing his eyes at sight. Their strategy in the end had worked out perfectly, but deep down inside, he was not happy that he would have to put his Pokémon through even more pain then necessary just to try and keep a level playing field with Tobias.

He would remember to reward him later on for his solidarity to the cause.

Mustering up what little strength he had left, Glalie rolled over onto Latios back and pinned the dragon to the ground underneath its weight, despite shedding the armour he was still very heavy.

"What are you doing" Latios moaned under Glalie's heavy body.

"I said that I would crush you underneath my body and I always keep my promises!" Glalie murmured quietly to the stricken dragon.

"So you're going to crush me to death, you do realize that I can always just recover my strength while you are out of power!" Latios said mounting a minor smirk as he started glowing, his scraps and burns slowly disappearing as he winced.

Gritting in its teeth in pain, Glalie managed a smirk as he looked up from Latios back at the sky, seeing a flock of Starly fly by.

'That may be so bacon breath, but don't think I won't go out with a bang!' Glalie thought to himself as he started to glow a bright white light.

"What the hell are you doing?" Latios asked nervously, seeing the white glow out of the corner of his eyes, his Trainer had also repeated said question to Ash.

"Just leaving my own lasting impression on this tournament, you can call me the bomb." he replied.

During the few days of survival training Glalie had spent a majority of his time with Charizard, picking up pieces of advice from the wizened veteran.

One piece of advice he had received during the training, was to enjoy the experience and to make your mark. There were billions of Pokémon in existence, so it was rare for a Pokémon to be on this stage, so make the most of it and show what you can do.

The battered and bruised Glalie remembered as his glowing body grew brighter starting to blind the audience. 'Might not have won this, but it was fun messing with that legendary's head. Never knew mental warfare was so fun, I'll remember to thank Charizard later.'

"It's time Glalie, and thank you my friend." Ash said.

"Explosion!" he ordered.

The field went completely white.

Glalie would later learn he had certainly made his mark on history.

While in reality this match had turned out to be draw, Glalie deep down had felt he had won.

**Omake: Alternate very wrong ending**

"Hey Latios" Glalie whispered blearily to the rapidly approaching Latios who was coming in for the finishing blow.

"End of the line Ice ball, its time you learnt some respect for your elders!" Screamed Latios his Giga Impact aura intensifying as he approached.

"Im about to blow my load!" Glalie said softly internally building up energy.

"What the!" Yelled Latios who somehow heard Glalie despite how weak his voice sounded.

"All over your insides!" Glalie screamed glowing with energy and exploding catching Latios in it's range.

The dust settled to reveal Latios who had survived the explosion but not without injury his whole body covered in burns, but for some reason he felt extremely cold.

"Why do I feel like I suddenly need to pee?"

**An: firstly even though it's obvious yes Glalie knew exactly what he was saying during the match winning the mental battle is the first step to victory.**

**Anyway later people don't expect to predict what the next match up to be, the first two were pretty predictable fights now it's time to change it up a bit.**

**Lightningblade49 signing out for now!**


End file.
